Cold front to strike blow against calm days

Expect high winds and potentially strong storms

South Floridians should enjoy the outdoors Saturday and early Sunday, because after that, forecasters say the weather will bring rainstorms and possibly tornadoes.

You can blame an approaching cold front moving through the state.

The stretch of mostly sunny, calm days we’ve had is expected to change significantly “instead of being stuck in one pattern,” said Robert Molleda, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

On Saturday, the forecast calls for partly cloudy weather with highs in the lower 80s. Saturday night will be mostly clear until midnight and then a slight chance of showers begins, with lows around 70.

If meteorologists are correct, the changes will be apparent starting Sunday.

Early Sunday it will be dry, but

it will be windy enough so that “people will notice,” Molleda said, maybe up to 30 mph.

Then a “pretty strong” frontal system will begin moving down the peninsula. The showers and thunderstorms will come ahead of that cold front with strong winds, and “the threat some of these thunderstorms could contain strong wind gusts, maybe even tornadoes,” Molleda said.

Weather Service incident meteorologist Steven Ippoliti wrote in a Friday weather statement that the “vigorous” cold front could include small hail.

Hazardous marine conditions are expected for all of South Florida’s waterways by Sunday evening, lasting into Tuesday.

“We’re not saying it’s definitely going to happen, but it has that potential,” Molleda said of the predictions.

The cold front itself then blows through on Monday. Low temperatures Monday night around the region should be in the upper 50s. “That’s seasonable for this time of year,” Molleda said.

“Once we get past Monday, then we should have pretty much nice weather for most of next week,” he said.

For most of the week, South Florida will see lows in the 50s, perhaps into the 60s, and highs in the mid-70s “for a good part of the week,” he said. It will be closer to 80 degrees by Thursday.

Coincidentally, Monday begins Florida Severe Weather Awareness Week, calling attention each day to severe weather-related issues such as hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, rip currents and flooding.

Monday, for example, is Lightning Awareness Day. Nine people in Florida died in 2016 as a direct result of lightning strikes, the most of any state and in any year in Florida since 2007.