Bad Weather?

[Annadesu]

So, I'm reading on Accuweather that May 13-20 is rain, rain, rain! I have a poncho, so I'm not concerned, but does it usually rain all day in Orlando, this time of year? Or is it brief? What happens to the rides/park if there's thunderstorms??

 

[mesaboy2]

Most of the time, it's brief. It can rain for a day or longer, but that is rare. As a native Floridian, let me encourage you to ignore any rain forecasts more than 48 hours--they are useless here. Lightning and heavy rains may affect the operation of outdoor rides, but that is also fairly unusual.

 

[Cafeen]

Accuweather is charging to see % chance of precipitation now? Really?

Ahem...

While I'm not a Floridian, it also helps to learn what those percentages mean, along with the description of the weather itself.

The percentages are a guess based on history. When the atmosphere was similar to how they're thinking it's going to be that day, it rained x% of the time over the past y times. It does NOT mean that it's going to rain x% of the day! It also does not mean that the entire forecast area will see rain, which leads to part 2...

Isolated, Scattered, etc. These are typically used for Thunderstorms or showers, and signify how densely packed the storms will be. I don't know if there's an actual standard for this, but my typical description is:
Isolated - It can be storming in DHS and sunny(ish) in Epcot.
Scattered - It can be storming in DHS and Epcot, and sunny in MK.

Note that even if a small storm passed through off of WDW property, it would "qualify" for that % chance of whatever, and thus marking it as "had rained" under those conditions into the data.

(I'm sure it's all a bit more complex than that, but that's my understanding of the basics).

Besides, FL weather is notoriously volatile. It can go from bright and clear, to downpouring, back to bright and clear in the span of 30 minutes.

 

[DOOM1001]

The forecast will probably change 10 times between now and your trip,by then it may show a mostly sunny forecast.You're staying for a week,I highly doubt you will only get ugly rainy days.May is the last of the "Drier" months as June is when you will begin to get more of those summer afternoon storms along with the higher humidity,in May however you will start to get the heat,a lot of times in May you might have days where you wish some clouds and rain would move in and cool the day down as days in the mid 90's with no clouds can get unbearable at times.One of my hottest visits to Disney was on a day like that in May,97 degrees,mostly sunny and heat indexes in the 110-115 range.With all that said,it's Florida it can rain at anytime.

 

[scrappinDW]

Thanks for the explanations. We will be there at the same time and I was a little worried about the forecast. Still, it is WDW and we are on vacation!!!

 

[kaligal]

I wouldn't bet the farm on a forecast this far out.

It could rain all day, but it is unlikely in May.

Having once believed Ye Olde "It only rains for 20 minutes" bullcookies, I learned the hard way that it is a good idea to make decisions about what we might want to do in the event of rain before we left.

 

[Silvermist999]

I will be there during that time too....can't believe they are forecasting "rain"...and not "chance of t-storm", or "scattered t-storm". Why does it seem that they think it will rain for sure? I hope the forecast changes by then!

 

[mesaboy2]

I will be there during that time too....can't believe they are forecasting "rain"...and not "chance of t-storm", or "scattered t-storm". Why does it seem that they think it will rain for sure? I hope the forecast changes by then!

As already mentioned, it will. Ten times. Welcome to Florida.

 

[DebbieB]

I just got back. A couple of weeks ago it showed the past week with rainy days. We had 1 day with some light showers for a couple hours. That was it.

 

[Annadesu]

Alrighty then! Thanks for the help, folks

 

[LaurenT]

It may just rain an hour a day. It may not rain at all. It may rain nonstop for 5 days (as it did one May for us a few years ago).
If the weather forecast you see today turns out to be accurate, it is purely a coincidence. It is wrong as often as right, which makes it useless.

 

[jenfromjersey]

We just got to Orlando and the forecast has changed a bajillion times. It was first 30%, 30%, 60% 10% for our park days, then changed to my favorite of 10%, 10%, 0%, 0% and now we are at 10%, 40%, 50%, 30% I am not a happy camper ranging from PM Thunderstorms tomorrow, to isolated and scattered thunderstorms sigh

 

[snarlingcoyote]

It's Florida. Rain happens with little predictability unless there's a tropical storm.

I just always budget around $40 bucks for ponchos as DH and I don't carry a lot around with us. (Definitely not ponchos unless we're going into a park with a water ride - then we stuff a dollar store poncho into our pockets and toss it after the ride.) If it starts raining heavily and looks like it won't let up for a while, we buy a pair of ponchose and keep on trucking. Lines are usually shorted and it does cool things down a bit.

If it starts raining before we get there and looks like it will continue to rain the entire day, we wear our rain jackets.

Michief managed.

 

[momto2sweeties]

We are going during this time as well.

Hoping for nice weather!

 

[CarolineB]

The Indiana Jones show will be reduced / cancelled if there's inclement weather.
When we saw if a few ago when we had rain, the whole 3rd act was canceled and the 2nd act didn't have the stunts. We went back a 2nd time to see the whole show but I had known the show was going to be reduced, I wouldn't have bothered. They just announce the reduction before the show starts.

Fantasmic also can be affected.