By Scott Martin - @RaceWx4You
Wednesday will be a fine and dandy day down at "The World Center Of Racing" as a cold front will stay north of the track throughout the daytime hours. Skies will be mostly clear with just a few clouds floating overhead, while all of the rain activity stays well north into Georgia and Alabama. Afternoon high will be in the lower 80s, and winds will be shifting from out of the northwest to out of the northeast at 5-8 MPH. No rain for today.
By Thursday morning, the cold front has nearly moved through the entire state and will be well south of Daytona Beach. We'll have a few more clouds in the forecast with shifty winds, but it will be another day without rain (at this point). The afternoon high will be in the lower 80s once again, and winds will be out of the west to start, but shift out of the south by the afternoon. Any rain activity will form offshore, and that southerly wind will help with keeping them that way.
By Thursday morning, the cold front has nearly moved through the entire state and will be well south of Daytona Beach. We'll have a few more clouds in the forecast with shifty winds, but it will be another day without rain (at this point). The afternoon high will be in the lower 80s once again, and winds will be out of the west to start, but shift out of the south by the afternoon. Any rain activity will form offshore, and that southerly wind will help with keeping them that way.
Friday, the track will be sandwiched between two cold fronts, as the one that passed through will be just south of Florida, while another front will be approaching from the north. Pressure gradients will start tightening up a little, meaning that there will be an increase in wind speeds. Skies will continue to be mostly cloudy, and the temperatures will be around 8 degrees cooler than Thursday. The afternoon high will be in the lower 70s, and winds will be out of the north to northeast averaging 7-16 MPH, with gusts up to 20 MPH possible. Much of the day at this point looks to be dry, but a few showers may creep into the area by the very late afternoon and into the early evening hours.
Saturday will be the day that we will have to worry about rainfall at Daytona International Speedway. It will be a day that will be mostly cloudy, and rain could be possible at anytime. At this point, showers will be scattered in nature, but thunder and lightning should not be a threat. At some point, there could be enough rainfall for the rain tires to be warranted. One of the models is keeping the rainfall north of the area... but that is only one model out of many. At this point, timing, placement, and amount of rainfall is not set in stone, so I'm going with a risk of showers at any given time throughout the day, but it shouldn't rain all day long. The afternoon high will be in the mid-70s, and winds will be gusty at time, averaging 13-17 MPH and gusts to 25 MPH possible.
This will be an interesting forecast for race day, so be sure to follow our main Twitter feed @RacecastWx as we will be using it as our one-stop place for forecasts and updates on Twitter. We'll continue to have our personal accounts as well, but we'll only use those to retweet our forecast and for personal use. As always, our forecasts will still be featured on our Facebook page along with our Instagram account. Radar will be up and running on Friday. Thank you and have a great Wednesday.
This will be an interesting forecast for race day, so be sure to follow our main Twitter feed @RacecastWx as we will be using it as our one-stop place for forecasts and updates on Twitter. We'll continue to have our personal accounts as well, but we'll only use those to retweet our forecast and for personal use. As always, our forecasts will still be featured on our Facebook page along with our Instagram account. Radar will be up and running on Friday. Thank you and have a great Wednesday.
