PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The Weather Authority has issued an Impact Day for Sunday, March 16 due to the approaching cold front that is expected to pack a punch.
This system has the potential to produce severe thunderstorms consisting of damaging winds 45-65 mph, hail, and isolated tornadoes.
Unfortunately, Sunday is also the final round of The Players, and thousands are expected to be on the course to see who takes home the trophy and a record purse.
The Players have electronic boards that update spectators on weather conditions. These are the boards that the PGA says they will constantly update.
The PGA uses a color scale. Green is all good where no inclement weather is expected, yellow is be aware, orange is be prepared, red is take action and purple is course closed.
News4JAX was told by some people at the information tent on Friday that the PGA is very proactive. They have a weather team that monitors and if the weather were to get bad, they would know well ahead of time.
They also said if there is a case where they have to cancel, horns would blast.
If the tournament is delayed, it’s possible players could be forced to finish their rounds on Monday. The last time this happened was in 2022. All the Monday finishes have occurred in March. The Players was held in May for 12 years until returning to its earlier date in 2019.
Really, the best thing you can do is monitor on your phone and check for the updates on the boards on the course.
Beginning early Sunday morning, the system will first approach Southeast Georgia counties. The timing and heating will determine the intensity of the storms early in the day. As the system traverses from the northwest to the southeast, and heating occurs throughout the day, the storms are likely to increase in intensity.
The worst of the weather will be offshore by Sunday night as the cold front moves offshore toward sunset. Cooler air will settle in behind the front keeping highs on Monday below average in the upper 60s, low 70s.