Here's your Tampa area weather forecast for late Thursday into Friday and the weekend.

  • Hotter pattern
  • More humid, too
  • Cold front early next week

As expected, the heat came roaring back. Highs were in the upper 80s near the coast, but got into the mid 90s inland.

Skies will be mostly clear overnight into early Friday morning, but there will be some early fog in spots.

Morning lows will be mild, not dropping past the mid 60s in northern counties, but low 70s around the bay.

Friday will again feature hot temperatures. It will actually be hotter in most spots with highs easily in the low 90s for coastal regions and mid to upper 90s for inland areas. It will definitely be the hottest we’ve been since last summer.

Friday's forecast could break or reach record highs:

Tampa: Forecast high 91 -- Record high 91 in 1996

St. Petersburg Downtown: Forecast high 90 -- Record high 90 in 1940

Clearwater: Forecast high 93 -- Record high 89 in 2014

Brooksville: Forecast high 95 -- Record high 95 in 1958

Sarasota/Bradenton: Forecast high 90 -- Record high 92 in 1974

Winter Haven: Forecast high 98 -- Record high 96 in 1998

(If Winter Haven hits 98 it will be a tie for the warmest ever in April)

The reason it will be so hot is because a high pressure is on top of us, pushing down on the atmosphere. The other reason is we’ll have a wind from the southeast, and no cooling relief from our sea breeze off the gulf, where the water temperatures are still only in the 70s.

There will be just enough moisture late in the day to trigger a couple isolated showers along the sea breeze boundary, but that coverage will be less than ten percent.

The weekend will continue the same pattern with hot, humid conditions.  A cold front is on the way early next week to bring temperatures back down a bit.

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