Revelers attending Tampa's annual Gasparilla Parade on Saturday can leave behind their pirate dresses this year — the weather is expected to be warm and mostly sunny.
More than 300,000 people are expected to attend the Gasparilla parade this year. The parade, which runs along Bayshore Boulevard, will include 120 parade floats, a marching band and more than 50 crew members tossing beads to parade-goers. This year, the annual parade is likely to go ahead without much interruption due to weather.
“It should be a beautiful day,” said Paul Close, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Tampa Bay office. “A little warm and humid.”
For those who plan to get to the parade route early, Close said temperatures will start in the mid-60s.
The festivities begin at 11:30 a.m., when the pirate ship Jose Gasparilla arrives at the southern end of Hillsborough Bay. By then, the day will already be warm.
After the ship docks and once those on board have received their key to Tampa, the show will begin at 2 p.m. In the warmer part of the day, temperatures will likely be in the lower 80s in Tampa. However, Close said areas near the water could be in the mid-70s.
Some patchy fog may be possible during the day of the show, Close said.
“So that's the only thing we're monitoring,” Close said. “Warm, humid air over these cold waters, we expect to see sea fog developing over the next day or two, and that could continue into Saturday.”
A high pressure system in the Atlantic Ocean is bringing warmer, more humid air to the region this week, bringing above-average temperatures. The stability of warm air this week has pushed some of the coldest temperatures of the season.
During Saturday's Gasparilla Children's Parade (the family-friendly version of the event), children wore vests over their pirate costumes. However, colder weather came the next morning, when temperatures dropped to near freezing across Tampa Bay.
Times staffer Sharon Kennedy Wynn contributed to this report.
