By Doug Schneider
A cold front is expected to move across the Daytona area and bring showers to the Speedway on Friday and Friday night, but the good news is that the timing of most of the rain should allow for very little impact on the on-track activities.
The Roar will open with warm temperatures and a good southwest breeze on Friday. Through the day, clouds will be increasing as a deep upper level trough and its associated cold front move across the Plains to the eastern United States. Ahead of this front, some scattered showers may develop around Daytona on Friday afternoon. I expect that only the late day practice session will have a chance of rain, and any rain that occurs will likely be light. The main band of showers with the cold front is not expected to move across Daytona until after dark on Friday night.
By the start of practice on Saturday morning, the cold front should be east of the Speedway, and clouds will gradually be clearing out. The track may be wet in the morning, but it should dry out quickly with clearing skies and a bit of wind. Temperatures will be cooler compared to Friday, but still quite pleasant in the lower 70s. Winds will shift to the west and still be a little breezy at 10 to 15 mph.
High pressure building over the area will bring a northwest winds and cooler temperatures for Sunday, with morning lows in the upper 40s and afternoon highs in the mid 60s. Still, there will be plenty of sunshine all day, along with low humidity.
Over the past few days, the models have been in pretty good agreement on this pattern, and have not changed much from run to run, so my confidence in this forecast panning out is fairly high. Check back through the week for updates.
The Roar will open with warm temperatures and a good southwest breeze on Friday. Through the day, clouds will be increasing as a deep upper level trough and its associated cold front move across the Plains to the eastern United States. Ahead of this front, some scattered showers may develop around Daytona on Friday afternoon. I expect that only the late day practice session will have a chance of rain, and any rain that occurs will likely be light. The main band of showers with the cold front is not expected to move across Daytona until after dark on Friday night.
By the start of practice on Saturday morning, the cold front should be east of the Speedway, and clouds will gradually be clearing out. The track may be wet in the morning, but it should dry out quickly with clearing skies and a bit of wind. Temperatures will be cooler compared to Friday, but still quite pleasant in the lower 70s. Winds will shift to the west and still be a little breezy at 10 to 15 mph.
High pressure building over the area will bring a northwest winds and cooler temperatures for Sunday, with morning lows in the upper 40s and afternoon highs in the mid 60s. Still, there will be plenty of sunshine all day, along with low humidity.
Over the past few days, the models have been in pretty good agreement on this pattern, and have not changed much from run to run, so my confidence in this forecast panning out is fairly high. Check back through the week for updates.
