Orlando weather: Hot, hot, hot Memorial Day weekend on tap across Central Florida
ORLANDO, Fla. - It's Memorial Day weekend – and we're on track for a near-record heat weekend with very low rain chances through the middle of next week.
Highs will reach the mid-90s on Friday with the upper 90s all weekend.
The humidity levels will also ramp up, yielding a heat index — or "feels like" temps — approaching 105 to 107 degrees. The National Weather Service may issue a few heat advisories.
There's little hope this hot pattern will break after the weekend. In fact, the high-pressure system inducing this heat wave will stubbornly persist through next week, with the mid-to-upper 90s remaining across our region.
This will limit our typical afternoon storm chances to less than 30% in most cases next week. So the only relief will be some hit-or-miss downpours, but nothing numerous.
On the horizon, a surge of tropical moisture may try to make a run at Florida for the first week or two of June, at the least resulting in higher coverage of afternoon soaking sea breeze storms.
At worst, a tropical system may try to come together in the Caribbean, focusing all that rain into a concentrated area. If that happens, our overall rain chances would likely diminish unless said potential system was to track into Florida.
NOAA predicts above-normal 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season: See their prediction
NOAA has released its seasonal hurricane outlook for the Atlantic basin, and due to warm waters and a diminishing El Niño, the agency believes the year could be ferocious.
This scenario is a reach, however, as there's low certainty anything tropical will form, much less track into our area.
Overall, we face 10 to 15 days of intense heat with highs 5-10° above our normal of 90°.
Ultimately, the rainy season will naturally break this heat wave's intensity and tenacity with daily afternoon storms and highs closer to what's typical for this time of year.
Before the rains return, our drought is likely to expand and intensify.
Brevard County is under moderate drought, while areas from Orlando to Daytona have "abnormally dry" conditions, which could lead to moderate drought in future weeks. These concerns will be alleviated once the wet season kicks in, but brush fires may become more common before the change.
