A Heat Advisory is in effect Thursday for all Tampa Bay area counties from 11 am until 8 pm, as the region braces for heat indices that could reach or possibly exceed 110°. Tampa is also near a record, with afternoon temperatures expected to climb into the mid-to-upper 90s.
That makes Thursday the kind of day people in Tampa Bay need to plan around, not just tolerate. A near-record high of 96° is in play in Tampa, and the forecast leaves little room for relief while the advisory is active.
Dry air and a thick plume of Saharan dust are expected to keep rain limited for much of the day. Hazy conditions will settle over Tampa Bay on Thursday, and only a 20-30% chance of a few downpours and storms is in the forecast, mainly inland during the second half of the day.
The one wrinkle is timing. Tampa may tie the previous record high of 96° set in 1992, but the forecast does not point to a clean break from that mark on Thursday. With the heat at its peak and storms held back by dry air, the day looks more like a match than a reset.
Relief is not far off, though it will come in steps. Rain chances should rise to 40-50% through the upcoming weekend as moisture returns and scattered storms become more likely, giving Tampa Bay its first real shift away from the driest part of the forecast.
