National Weather Service Melbourne Decision Support Weather Briefing for Emergency Management Officials Friday Jan 15th, 2016 Issued: 1030 am Thursday Jan 14th, 2016
Event Overview: A powerful southern stream jet will bring a deepening low pressure system across the northern Gulf coast Thursday night and across the Florida panhandle Friday morning. Potential Impacts: Instability will be limited but strong wind fields and wind shear will support isolated severe thunderstorms, including the possibility of tornadoes and damaging straight line winds, mainly Friday morning into the early afternoon. (See graphic below). Timing: This fast moving system will produce a 2 to 3 hour threat window for isolated tornadoes and damaging straight line winds between 7 am and 1 pm. The threat may linger later into the afternoon (as late as 4 pm until the cold front moves through) especially from Okeechobee county to the Treasure coast of Indian River, Saint Lucie and Martin counties. Outlook for late Saturday night/Sunday morning: There is another threat for isolated severe storms late Saturday night into Sunday morning as yet another low pressure area races east from the Gulf of Mexico. Models are not in good agreement with the strength of this low or its exact track so confidence is not high on the timing and impact of this event. But the stonger solution would bring a risk of isolated tornadoes and strong wind gusts to east central Florida before sunrise Sunday and continuing into Sunday morning daylight hours. Areas Affected: All of East Central Florida Next Update: The next update will be sent Friday morning. Forecaster: Kelly