NWS: Cold front to follow warm week; yearly rainfall 'below normal'
A week-long warm-up into a cold front is forecast following what meteorologists said was “needed rainfall” last weekend amid a drier-than-average dry season.
A dry and quiet week with temperatures climbing into the mid-80s by Friday on the Treasure Coast is projected by federal forecasters, but it's to give way to a “pretty strong” cold front by the weekend.
“We’ll be warming up this week and staying dry through at least Thursday,” said Scott Kelly with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Melbourne.
A chance of showers late Friday leads to a projected drop in temperature Saturday of lows in the mid-to-upper 40s and highs in the 60s, Kelly said.
A similar pattern was seen last week ahead of a rainy Sunday which brought what Kelly said was over 2 inches of precipitation to some areas of the Treasure Coast.
Recorded rainfall amounts showed Vero Beach with 2.05 inches; Fort Pierce 1.41 inches; Stuart 1.93 inches; Port Salerno 1.02 inches; and Nettles Island 1.12 inches.
“It was needed rainfall,” Kelly said.
Even with the weekend rain, for the year, however, he said, “it’s still below normal.”
According to the National Weather Service, instead of spring, summer, winter and fall, subtropical, east central Florida has a wet and dry monsoon-like weather pattern.
Dry season begins in October and wet season in late May, according to the agency.
So far, this year Vero Beach is .82 of an inch and Fort Pierce is 1.6 inches below normal, Kelly said.
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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: NWS: Cold front to follow warm week; yearly rainfall 'below normal'
