By Doug Schneider
Today will begin with some fog and low clouds at Sebring, but they should clear out by around 10 am, leaving mostly sunny skies through the rest of the day. Much like the past few days, highs will reach into the upper 80s.
The chances of rain on Friday are looking a little lower now. There is still a slight chance of some afternoon showers and thunderstorms developing, but I think the coverage of any showers will be isolated. Most likely, Friday will stay dry.
Saturday still has a good chance of showers and thunderstorms, but the situation does not look quite as wet as it did a few days ago. This does not look like a 2015 Petit Le Mans, which had a tropical cyclone interacting with a frontal boundary to produce an extended period of heavy rain at Road Atlanta. While I do think that rain is likely at some point during the race, mainly Saturday afternoon and evening, I don't think it will be a prolonged heavy rainfall that will cause significant delays in the race. I'm holding the chance of rain at 60% at this point because there is still a model (NAM) that shows no rain at all on Saturday. It is an outlier, but I am hesitant to raise the rain chances when there is still disagreement in the models.
Here's the forecast rainfall from the NWS for Saturday (Sebring is near the yellow dot):
The chances of rain on Friday are looking a little lower now. There is still a slight chance of some afternoon showers and thunderstorms developing, but I think the coverage of any showers will be isolated. Most likely, Friday will stay dry.
Saturday still has a good chance of showers and thunderstorms, but the situation does not look quite as wet as it did a few days ago. This does not look like a 2015 Petit Le Mans, which had a tropical cyclone interacting with a frontal boundary to produce an extended period of heavy rain at Road Atlanta. While I do think that rain is likely at some point during the race, mainly Saturday afternoon and evening, I don't think it will be a prolonged heavy rainfall that will cause significant delays in the race. I'm holding the chance of rain at 60% at this point because there is still a model (NAM) that shows no rain at all on Saturday. It is an outlier, but I am hesitant to raise the rain chances when there is still disagreement in the models.
Here's the forecast rainfall from the NWS for Saturday (Sebring is near the yellow dot):
The dark blue is between 0.5 and 0.75 inches. Honestly, from what I've seen in the models this morning, I think that is on the high side. Most of the models are below this amount. That might be a maximum amount that is possible. A more likely amount in my opinion is between 0.25 and 0.5 inches.
I'll have another forecast update tomorrow morning, and hopefully the rain amounts and timing will be coming into better focus.
I'll have another forecast update tomorrow morning, and hopefully the rain amounts and timing will be coming into better focus.
