The only relief from the heat and humidity this week will be the daily occurrence of afternoon showers and thunderstorms over Central Florida. Temperatures are forecast to stay at or near 90 degrees each day, which is average for this time of year, with coastal locales seeing highs in the mid- to upper-80s with the seabreeze off the water.
Showers and storms began just after lunch today as the afternoon seabreeze pushed inland, forcing the warm and humid air to rise resulting in widely scattered but some locally strong storms with frequent lightning, gusty winds, heavy downpours and small hail. Showers and storms will slowly fade through the evening with partly cloudy skies expected overnight. Lows will range from near 70 along the I-4 corridor to the low- to mid- 70s along the Brevard County coast.
We will not see many day-to-day changes from this pattern for the balance of the workweek. Plan on the daily seabreeze to trigger late afternoon and evening thunderstorms right into the upcoming weekend. Temperatures will be in a steady pattern of reaching 90 degrees during the day with lows staying near 70.
This typical summertime setup also serves as a reminder that hurricane season is just around the corner, starting June 1. This week has been declared National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Make sure you are ready for hurricane season by having a disaster supply kit assembled and know your evacuation route and plan.
You can get ready for hurricane season by watching our exclusive special, Surviving the Storm: Then and Now. It will air at 8 p.m. Friday, May 30, and Saturday, May 31, and again at 4 p.m. Sunday, June 1.
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"It’s not the heat. It’s the humidity."
The summer heat feels worse when it's humid -- but why?
Does sweat on your body cool you off? Of course not; it just makes you feel worse when you sweat.
So, what's the point? The mechanism for cooling the human body is not the sweating, but the evaporation of the sweat. Evaporation is a cooling process, heat is required from the environment surrounding a bead of sweat to break the bonds holding water molecules together.
If sweat evaporates, then the air around it is cooled and our bodies are cooled. The problem in Florida is that the high humidity does not allow for the sweat to evaporate.
No evaporation, no cooling. So, the more humid it is, the hotter it feels.
