PANAMA CITY BEACH ― Based on weather forecasts, it seems like the 2026 Gulf Coast Jam might grapple with windy and rainy conditions.
The four-night country music festival, which is known to attract thousands of people to the area, is slated to occur Thursday to Sunday at Frank Brown Park in Panama City Beach.
According to Kelly Godsey, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, the forecast the morning of May 27 called for significant chances of rain every day of the concert, with Thursday expected to be the calmest day of the bunch.
“As we move into the weekend, we see our rain chances start to increase,” Godsey said. “We’re going to have a front approaching from the north. We’re going to have a lot more moisture coming in from the Gulf. Late Friday going all the way into the weekend, we see our rain chances increase to 50-60%.
“We’re looking at an earlier start to storms ― maybe mid to late morning ― on Saturday and Sunday, and continuing into the afternoon hours.”
Rendy Lovelady, executive producer for the Gulf Coast Jam, said the event’s app is the best place for patrons to get any updates on possible weather delays. That said, he was hopeful on May 26 that the weather would not cause any significant challenges this year.
“We communicate with them literally directly,” Lovelady said. “We don’t hide it. If there’s a storm coming, we tell them it’s coming. We give alerts on the big screens at the venue. … We always make sure that people understand what’s going on.”
The lineup for the 2026 Gulf Coast Jam is:
In addition to keeping up with the weather, Godsey also advised Gulf Coast Jam patrons to pay attention to beach conditions. With windy and rainy conditions comes an increased risk in rip currents, which pose the biggest risk to local beachgoers.
“We are going to have onshore winds continuing,” he said. “We’ve had a high risk of rip currents all week. That’s going to continue almost certainly into the weekend with the onshore flow. So, folks who are going to the beaches, we want them to pay very close attention to the beach flags.”
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Windy, rainy conditions forecasted for 2026 Gulf Coast Jam weekend
Reporting by Nathan Cobb, Panama City News Herald / The News Herald
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
