The Feast of the Epiphany Celebration returns to Tarpon Springs today, the largest celebration of its kind in the western hemisphere. The annual dive for the cross is the highlight of the celebration at Spring Bayou Friday, after the mass at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 8 am. Organizers expects at least 20,000 to be part of the Glendi celebration that will follow, so come early.

The weekend forecast brings back more seasonal temperatures with today’s high 69, and 72 for Saturday. Sunday will be a little warmer at 76, before temps start to fall into the lower 70′s, with predicted highs of 60 for next weekend.

The St Petersburg Coliseum was filled with residents Wednesday night to hear the proposals from four developers for the city’s historic Gas Plant district, that includes Tropicana Field. Those four are Sugar Hill Community Partners, Restoration Associates, Hines and the Tampa Bay Rays and 50 Plus 1 Sports. If you weren’t able to make the meeting, you can go online to let the city know your feelings before St Pete Mayor Ken Welch presents his choice at the State of the City address the week of January 30th.

Southwest Florida’s favorite eagle couple are parents again. The couple, Harriet and M15, who can be seen on their eagle cam had two eggs in their nest which had been destroyed by Hurricane Ian. The first eaglet hatched last night at 8:22 pm and is known for now as E21. There were signs of the second egg starting to hatch on Thursday. You can can watch for yourself here.

Sanibel Island is now open to the public with some restrictions. A curfew remains in place from 9 pm to 6 am, and the beaches and beach parking lots are closed. To discourage sightseeing, the city has also put fences up around rebuild areas that are not open to the public as well.

A new strain of the COVID virus is responsible for an increase in cases in Florida over the holidays, with 25,840 cases reported for the last week in December, which is 6,000 more than that same week last year. For information on the COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots, please check here.

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