Cloudy skies and below-average temperatures will persist for another day - and worse, it has been raining.

Rain arrived in the Tampa Bay area around mid-morning, and showers were continuing into the afternoon. The rain was heavy enough that one lane of southbound I-275 in Tampa had to be closed for sanding water. Some reports of minor flooding were coming in, and Polk County was getting heavy rain at 2:30 p.m.

In north Tampa, the University of South Florida's spring football practice had to be pushed back to 3 p.m. because of heavy rain.

And there's a good chance showers will continue throughout the day, according to Bay News 9 meteorologist Josh Linker.

A large area of high pressure off the Carolina coast is generating a cooler northeast surface wind, but upper-level winds are also bringing in moisture from the west.

"That's a moist setup for us, as a big trough is developing over the western United States," Linker said. "That's allowing the flow of air to come in from the southwest, and what that means for us is, lots of clouds and periods of showers. Really, at any point during the day, we're going to have these showers to deal with."

The rain chance will drop from 60 percent to 20 percent tomorrow, when the winds will lighten and the temperatures will climb into the mid to upper 70s. It's the start of a warming trend that will carry into next week.

"Tomorrow, we'll get a sea breeze to form, and as that sea breeze moves in later in the day, I would expect to see a couple of showers and thunderstorms developing over inland spots," Linker said. "Overall, our  rain chance tomorrow is 20 percent, but it will be higher inland and lower near the coast."

The weather will improve on a lot on Monday and Tuesday, temperatures will climb into the low 80s and there is no rain in the forecast. It should be nearly ideal for the start of Grapefruit League spring training baseball schedule.

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