DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Daytona 500 is synonymous with the state of Florida. It is one of the largest sporting events of ALL TIME, and it’s hosted right here along the sunny shores of Daytona Beach.
To add a little more excitement to race day, President Donald Trump is expected to be in attendance.
So one thing is for certain: the whole occasion will be its own bottle of lightning in itself.
But could we see a literal crack of thunder and lightning Sunday?
Let’s discuss the race-day forecast.
First, we’ll rewind the clock to Valentine' Day, February 14.
Our weather here in Central Florida should be pretty nice if you’re looking to enjoy the day or evening with your significant other, spouse, friends, you name it.
However, over the central Rockies and the Great Plains, one of many strong winter storm systems is forecast to start developing.
Now we can fast forward back to your race day!
As this system gets rocking over the central portions of the U.S., it will instigate even more warmth and moisture ahead of its cold front and will start filling in over our state.
Because of this, the signature line of showers and storms right along the nose of cold air being pushed around the south side of the low pressure will begin to grow in strength.
This is thanks to it running head first into our dome of above-average temperatures and tropical-like moisture that’s been sitting atop us Floridians for the past week now.
The collision of warm and cold will generate the rain that could push through us during the first half of Sunday. All of our global computer models project between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday, the cold frontal line will move northwest to southeast through our viewing area.
This could produce some wet conditions and maybe even a storm or two for Daytona International Speedway.
We’ve kind of witnessed this rhythm on a repetitive basis now with each upcoming 500 race. I can personally testify the last two Daytona races that I attended were delayed or pushed to the following day thanks to a cold front moving through.
All in all, it will be warm and sunny, but clouds will build around the arrival of our cold front.
There’s still plenty of time to watch this and update the forecast as we go through the week ahead. However, we have a lot of model to model consistency and confidence we could see rain chances try to climb a bit more before the race tries to get underway.
Be sure to pack the sunglasses, your favorite hat and NASCAR swag, as well as some ponchos just to be on the safe side.
The race should NOT be a washout!
If and when it does rain, those jet dryers, combined with the immediate onset of pleasant weather, should allow the green flag to fly no matter what Mother Nature has up her sleeve.
