{"id":170018,"date":"2026-02-26T12:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170018\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:25:09","slug":"morning-briefing-tampa-february-26-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170018\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Briefing Tampa February 26 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, Tampa Bay.\u00a0Here’s what you need to know today.<\/p>\n

Your Weather Planner<\/p>\n

The gradual warming trend continues today with highs in the mid 70s.<\/p>\n

We have great weather for the first day of the\u00a0Florida Strawberry Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Winds will be out of the south 5 to 15 mph.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s low temperatures will be around 60 degrees in Tampa, but 50s inland and north.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rain chances will increase for late Friday and Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get the full forecast here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

High:\u00a075<\/p>\n

Low:\u00a061<\/p>\n

Rain Coverage:\u00a00%<\/p>\n

Check your hour-by-hour forecast here<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Share your weather photos<\/a><\/p>\n

Around Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Florida Strawberry Festival 2026: Dates, entertainment, food and more<\/a>
The 91st annual Florida Strawberry Festival will make its return to Plant City on Thursday.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Tampa Police tout drop in crime in annual report<\/a>
The Tampa Police Department has released its annual report and numbers indicate a drop in crime.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0TGH first in Florida to airlift injured K-9 officers<\/a>
When a K-9 officer is hurt in the line of duty, every second counts \u2014 just like it does for their human partners. Now, Tampa General Hospital is making sure those four-legged heroes get emergency air transport, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Polk County receives federal funding for Kathleen Road extension<\/a>
For years, drivers have been hoping for an extension of Kathleen Road to relieve traffic congestion.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Is it safe to travel to Mexico? Agents in Florida and abroad weigh in<\/a>
\u201cNo matter where you go or what you\u2019re planning to do, research your destination ahead of time,\u201d said Dave Benson, a former federal agent and threat assessment professional.<\/p>\n

Around the Nation & World<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Cuba says it killed 4 people aboard Florida-registered speedboat that opened fire on soldiers<\/a><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0More than 50 members of Coast Guard discharged over COVID vaccine being reinstated, receiving back pay<\/a><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0‘We have to win’: In final campaign, Pelosi seeks to flip the House<\/a><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Iran accuses Trump of ‘big lies’ ahead of Geneva talks in face of major U.S. military deployment<\/a><\/p>\n

Quote of the Day
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

In a prepared statement, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke revealed that it was he who suffered a medical issue onboard the International Space Station that resulted in the Crew-11 mission being cut short.<\/p>\n

The 58-year-old retired U.S. Air Force colonel recapped and thanked his fellow astronauts and NASA flight surgeons when he experienced his medical issue, which he did not reveal what that was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning, Tampa Bay.\u00a0Here’s what you need to know today. Your Weather Planner The gradual warming trend continues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2126,275,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-170018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-morning-briefing","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}