in lakeland, melissa marino news channel 8. >> chief meteorologist steve jerve joins us now. have you ever been to the lakeland christmas parade? >> no, i am always working but i'd love to go or be in a. you've been and it. >> i've been in it for usf as a usf alumna and i took my little niece on it. that was years ago. she dressed in her clear at -- green and gold. it was fun to see it from that vantage point. >> that no one takes a chairs. >> they are just set up for days. >> lakeland is cool. >> and they have a great parade apparently. let's look forward to the weekend. >>> the temperatures are cooler saturday but we will start to warm up. for friday, we have a cold front passing through and it's not bad timing for the parade itself. should be a fairly comfortable might in lakeland. a cool start to the day for saturday morning but by sund, have had the past couple of days with highs in the low 80s. right now, from north to south has you would expect for the cold front passing through, there is a bit of a temperature difference and that goes with humidity difference. 62 degr

it starts in just less than two hours and melissa marino is joining us in lakeland. melissa, you and i both live in your spot is as much a tradition as the parade is. >> reporter: oh yeah. this year's theme is miracle on main street, sitting because that is where i'm standing. take a look at all these people. they are ready. they have their chairs set up and as you said, the goal is to get the best seat. pretty soon, the christmas parade and more than 100 floats it's a long-standing tradition but it's what happens before the parade but steals the show. >> we have always had rules. unfortunately, many times those rules are overlooked as people want a good vantage point. >> reporter: comfy chairs, tiny chairs, and everything in between, set up hours, some even days in advance. >> we saw chairs going out on monday. >> reporter: jessica golden set hers out 10 hours early. >> we wanted to make sure we get a good seat. >> reporter: but many had to find a spot. i got lucky with this spot. >> reporter: at this business, they meant business. >> there would be many of the space

in lakeland, melissa marino, yesterday. that is the good news. it does start again from june. this year there were 15 named storms and seven hurricanes. >>> a giant lobster, managed to ditch the dinner plate and get back home. it's all thanks to the kindness of a woman that he never met. king louie as he's been called is a 23-pound, caught in the the bay off the coast of eastern canada, then taken to a local lobster shop but before paid $230 for his release. the lobster shop honored the request and local fisherman as you saw released king louie back into the bay. hopefully he stays away from lobster traps in the future. >> you only get one shot at that release. >>> the mannequin challenge is a little played out, but news doesn't travel so fast to the ends of the earth. check these guy us out. a group of marathon runners braved extreme temperatures to perform what is believed to be challenge. are they doing the challenge or just frozen? because it's so cold? you judge. it's not fair because the object of the challenge is to stay still as possible. it's literally freezing. tempe

and lakeland, melissa marino news channel 8. >>> hurricane season ends today and begins again in june. >>> l -- now, max defender 8, the world's most powerful radar and your storm team 8 forecast with chief meteorologist steve >> i actually saw umbrellas and that story. there were a few m1 showers and raindrops farther west as well. most of the shower activity to the east at the moment. you can see it moving through southeastern sections of polk county and perhaps northern sections of highland county moving rapidly toward the our yearly rainfall since january 1, over 52 inches of rain. compare that to extreme drought conditions causing wildfires in places like tennessee but also georgia, alabama extremely dry. for us, 8.3 inches above normal. last year was also above normal. we are not in drought conditions. it is always nice to get those above normal numbers. temperatures in the low 70s this evening. is a cloudy skies. you saw shower activity on max defender 8. 70 degrees. thanked the high humidity for that. in the afternoon, a few clouds we are currently 70 degrees at tampa internat

melissa marino live in lakeland. >>> still to co fidel castro's death. >> jeff patterson catches up with people from tampa who made the trip to the country and >>> the convoy carrying castro's ashes continues on its journey to his final resting place. crowds waving cuban flags chanting "i am fidel." a delegation from the tampa bay history center just arrived in cuba period of mourning. jeff patterson caught up with them today. jeff is the only bay area reporter in cuba and joins us now from havana. >> reporter: more than 2.1 million people live in havana so it's always a little surprising to me to be in this city and to monitor people that you know from tampa. especially surprising to be on this historic trip and run into people from the tampa bay history center. ago seemed impossible to me.>> reporter: he's a curator for the tampa bay history center. >> to be here during a historic time, politics aside is incredible. >> reporter: he is here with the board of directors visiting the birthplace of josi martm. >> to be able to walk in the rooms where he walked is incredible. >> reporter: wh