It’s common for cold fronts to come through St Petersburg in December. The most common indicator that a cold front will come through will be the rapid drop in temperature. Any time there’s a significant drop in temperature there will be wind.
Typically you will get a southerly wind two days before the front approaches. The wind will begin out of the SE and shift to S two days before the front. The day before the front the wind will be out of the S and may shift to the SW if the front gets close enough to the St Petersburg area. South wind pulls warm air up from the tropics into the Tampa Bay area so you can count on pleasant kiteboarding conditions.
The forecast will usually call for “breezy” conditions and storms on the day the front comes through. This is the one day that you should avoid kiteboarding. At the beginning of the cold front is usually a line of strong thunderstorms with unpredictable and gusty wind. It varies from cold front to cold front but there are times when the wind is light right before the front and as soon as the front hits the wind spikes up to 30mph or more. Kiteboard the days before and after the cold front.
After the cold front will be cooler, dryer conditions. If the temperatures drop enough the day after a cold front, the wind will be out of the N in the morning and NW in the afternoon. As the cold front pushes further south, a NE wind will develop in the mornings after. If the air is dry and the sun is out and there is a NE wind in the morning then it is likely there will be a strong NW sea breeze in the afternoon. A sea breeze is caused by the land heating faster than the ocean water and is rarely forecasted.
Remember, the best times to kiteboard are before and after a cold front. Avoid the day the cold front passes through St Petersburg. If you’re going to take a day off of work to kiteboard, take the day before the cold front off because there’ll most likely be a warm southerly wind. Our favorite place to ride on a S wind is Fort Desoto East Beach.
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