Tia at 34 degrees. 35 on the map shows how dry the air is. Today, blazing sunshine. Temperatures warming up to a high around 6 4 this afternoon. And then set yourselves up for another cool evening tonight. For the early dinner hours, temperatures will dip down into the 50s. And then tonight, more mid40degree readings. A lot of soccer fans out there. Stick around because were going to talk about the sun coast is ahead. Thank you mark. To a health on your side health alert. Its flu season in florida and with the changing temperatures, mark is showing us were atrisk. This morning, we want to make sure you and your family stay healthy. The latest number shows 51 counties are seeing more cases of the flu. News channel 8 mary mcguire shows us a lot of our coworkers have been sick lately. Certainly true if youve been hearing people sniffling and coughing. Its not just your imagine. The Florida Department of health says flu season is ramping up here in this state and they have advice for you this morning. Its back with muscle aches, body pains and runny noses. The flu is rearing its ugly head again. Its also pretty much the time of year where florida. Flu season has been off to a slow start here in florida. But its back. In the last month, one influenza outbreak was reported in a polk county elementary school. One in a hillsboro county childcare facility and another in a Pinellas County assisted living facility. Besides getting the flu shot, what can we do to stay heathy . Get a good nights sleep and eat well and exercise. When youre feeling bad and you have a cold or possibly the flu, stay at home. Keep fluid home. For those wanting a more hoe found in the bottom of a juice bottle. You see Something Like this, its called [indiscernible] juice and it has four to six pounds of organic juice and vegetables. Most people might not get that in a month. Squeezed juice works in south tampa offers multiple con con concoctions. Squeeze does have a wheat grass shot that has ginger in it and its called the flu shot. That is meant to ward off any bad crusty feelings you might have. Maybe a cold coming on, but the Florida Department of health does urge everyone ages 6 months and older to get that flu shot. So to save a lot of trouble and a lot of headaches and a lot of sniffles in the future. Adrienne. Mary, sounds like i need to get the juice flu shot and the flu shot on my way home today. Well, a Pinellas County man explains his wide ride. He insist he was trying to help police officers, but he ended up behind bars. Long thought he was doing the right thing when he heard about a stolen car with a toddler in the back. He followed the car police were after along us 19 and clearwater. Your body goes into a fight or flight mode and you have no control over that. And my body said fight. Do the right thing. Im a christian. He ended up crashing into a police cruiser. It turns out the mother lied about the child being in the backseat in the first place. Were learning about a gunman in a mass shooting in can social security. Cedric ford, you see him here, uses a semiautomatic rifle and he was no stranger to law enforcement. Youre looking at video from facebook page. He posted this in september of 2015. The 38yearold mass shooter lets pull up his mug shot on your screen. Ford shot and hurt 3 people before storming the excel lawnmower factory shooting three people died. The father of one of those injured praises his sons coworkers for saving him. When i got there, i noticed they were on shift and they told been shot. Some of his coworkers pulled him off to the side. One of them got shot helping him out. These are two of the three men killed. Cedric ford, the shooter was killed by police. We learned he was upset after being served by a restraining order by his girlfriend hours before that rampage. A woman is facing charges for giving guns to ford. Sarah hopkins gave two guns to ford knowing he wasnt allowed to convicted felon. More on that to come, im sure. A 12yearold girl is the only survivor of a murdersuicide that left five people dead. After a standoff, the man turned gun on himself. Four bodies were found inside the home. Police are trying to figure out what led to this tragedy. Its 7 06. Its your vote. We have a big day for democrat s s here. The president ial candidates will face off today in south carolinas primarily. Hillary clinton and sanders spent time campaigning around the palmetto state. Most polls predict clinton will win by a large margin, but senator sanders claims hes closing in on the former secretary of state. The gop front runner is getting a big boost this election season. Im sure you heard about this. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is throwing his support behind donald trump. Trump who previously dismissed the importance of endorsement feels good about this one. Appeared at a rally in texas where christie explained his decision. The single most important thing for the Republican Party is to nominate the person who gives us the best chance to beat clinton. I can guarantee you the one person that hillary and bill clinton do not want to see on the stage come next september is donald trump. The endorsement came the day after a fiery debate where marco rubio and ted cruz double teamed trump. When asked about Chris Christie endorsement, both seem unfazed. Donald probably needs a lifeline after friday. He called in christie. I think the endorsement was no doubt troubling news for the rubio campaign. I like chris. I dont think the endorsement was a big surprise to many observers. All the candidates are looking ahead to super tuesday. Water rescue caught on camera in hillsboro county. Lets take a closer look. A mans boat capsized. Some saw what was going on. So he hopped in his boat and tried to help. But then his boat started sinking too. In the end, sheriffs deputy and firefighters inflated a yellow boat. They scooped the pair out of the water. Thankfully nobody got hurt. Its certainly not easy balancing lifes challenges, but a local woman is making it look effortless. Coming up, we want to introduce you to a martial artist who juggles being a single parent and her youre looking live over downtown tampa. I hope youre soft, calm music hi, youve reached emma. Im out of the office right now but will get back to you just as soon as i possibly can. Your call is important to me. Join Princess Cruises for exclusive discovery at sea experiences. 6day caribbean cruises from just 549. Call your travel consultant or visit princess. Com Princess Cruises. Welcome back. To become a successful martial arts fighter, have you to devote a lot of time to practicing your craft. Nicholas caught up with the fighter who is managing to stay undefeated while being a single company. [ cheering ] if youre looking for one of entertaining sport in the tampa bay area, youre in luck because World Class Fight League is here to stay. This our 14th show. 18 fights on this card. Stacked at 5 title fights. This is madea, hollywoods third fight and so far shes never been beaten. I get this feeling when i step in the cage and its a feeling i dont have anywhere else. Its a sense of empowerment. Madea would punch, kick and jab her way to a 30 record. I do this for free. I do it because i love it. Im not pro. I only have 3 fights. Have you to have 5 to go pro. As she waits to turn pro, madea runs her own shoefer. I have four kids at home and train and i feel better. It makes me a better person and a better friend and mother. World class fight league put on a sold out crowd of more than 1,000 people. People i talked to tells me they cant get enough of this kind of maa fighting. Boxing has gotten boring for us. We want to see them get down. We want to see the action. And thats what this is about. This is about the action. Growing up, ive never saw women fighting. It was men boxing and now you have everything. Its good to see male and female fighting. Thats the sentiment shared by everyone down to the youngest fan. Come on. In tampa, anthony alred, news channel 8. My goodness. That kid was intense. We have your full saturday forecast. Also ahead, easter is around the corner. Out others in our community. Welcome back. Easter is a month away. I cant believe it. A lot of families in our community dont know what theyre going to do. And that is where metropolitan ministries come in. They provide nice meals for people and joining me is tim marks. We appreciate it. Thank you adrienne. Tell us what metropolitan minute poll minute trees do ministries do. Were going to provide 2500 hot meals everyday. Over 900 food boxes going to the community each and everyday and thats where your viewers can help us on the. Youre out there talking to people. What is the need like . I had a Senior Citizen come into our Outreach Center the other day, about 700 is his disability insurance. His food stamp 16 a month. Oh, my goodness. 16 a month. What do you do with 16 a month. 16 a week wouldnt cut it. Theres needs out there no matter whats going on in the economy or unemployment. Comes around. The metropolitan ministries by doing a food drive or donating. Well make sure the donations goes to those who need it the most. You provide hot meals and we have the pantry items. Lets go through how that works. Again, were not your everyday free pantry, but what we do is we step in the gap to help people in crisis. We try to provide those staples for both a breakfast, a lunch and dinner and help someone get through the next three days and work with them on a food stamp supplement them. The idea is to stand in the gap. Thats what the pantry food does. And the hot meals, were going to be preparing a special easter meal with the ham, we have great chefs in our kitchen. Volunteers come along those chef and help prepare the meals and all those families on our campus, 100 families in the Easter Service on the 26th with their meals and well do a Community Meal on the 26th that saturday. Were invited for a traditional easter meal. Thank you so much for coming in. I know ive been there for easter and its a great event and people appreciate your work. Thank you for the support. Lets put information on your screen how you can help so you can donate, volunteer or host a food drive. Metropolitan ministries is on north florida in tampa. Good to know. Everybody deserves a good meal he is especially come easter time. As we outside right now, the sun is up and temperatures slowly warming up. But we have hit rock bottom. Chilly out there with the overnight lows. 45 right now in lakewood ranch. Not a loud in sight. Looking nice. We have seen a frosty start in brooksville and crystal river. St. Pete at 51 degrees. And low 40s extending down into north port. As we head through the day, winds are less today. A lot of sunshine. Just a great day to be outdoor z s, but you may need that sweater through the afternoon. The high anchored over the gulf of mexico, that will get a little closer to us. And insuring we stay cloud free during the day. This afternoon, well get close to that 70degree mark over the inland zones. Probably upper 60s there. But still stopping short in tampa. A high of 64. Thats here for today. If youre look ing for a milder set up, tomorrow will be your day. Well see the 70s showing up. Tonight, it showers and storms a pretty cool evening in the stands, but hey, its going to be nice along the bay in st. Pete for the rallies playing montreal. The game will start at 4 00 with the sun coast invitation, but the one you want to see is youre a rallys fan we head into the overnight tide period, were going to cool down. 50s around the sunset hour and for tomorrow morning, waking up at 45. Milder tomorrow morning in our northern communities, but still we might have to contend with areas of frost there because we have the ridge moving right over us here tonight promoting a quick cool off as we head into the overnight timeframe. A gradual warmup. That easterly flow comes back into the picture. Youre setting up with low level moisture as we head into sunday and monday as well. No rain here in the forecast though. So good boating conditions with those breezes backing off, switching towards the in the west later this afternoon. And your high tide at 4 19. The only opportunity for rain will be on wednesday. Thats the front that comes through. This front will be weaker than the last one. Not as much rain. The weather should not be as violent as the nasty weather we had here this week on wednesday. And then the air behind it will not be as chilly as what weve seen. This morning in parts of the bay area, that could last for some time. Warmer weather to get us through the next couple of weeks through march. A lot of people are thankful for that. A lot of people on facebook were commenting how cold it is and we need to get out of this cold snap. Were wimps. Thank you mark. The lightnings try to also ahead, the bolts general manager is working double duty signing contracts and scoring goals. Youll hear from him next in sports. Whats with him . Your familys finally thanks to our birds eye voila skillet meals. And they only take 15 minutes to make. Ahh birds eye voila lowes presents how to put your foot in your mouth. Man, wish my yard looked like yours. Hey, the grass is always greener on the other side of the. Sorry. Now get 20 off stagreen fertilizer, on february 15th, lightning general manager steve announced he will not shop Stephen Stamkos before the trade deadline. Three days leader, the bolts captain scored a goal and added a shootout winner over the jets. That was the beginning of a hot streak for stamer and his hockey club. Entering yesterdays dance with the new jersey devils, tampa bay won four in a row with stamkos scoring in each game. The bolts get on the board late in the first. A shot deflected and the puck bounces to alex who buries it. 10. Fast forward to second, the trip letter s david likes the devils. The devils. You knew this was coming. If you paid attention in the intro, stamkos shot his 27th goal of the year. The captain scoring Streak Continues as the lightning streak. Bishop makes 21 saves. The red wings and avalanche are getting ready for prime time tonight on news channel 8. The rivals played an alumni game last night and look who lights the lamp for the wings. Steve punching home a rebound. 11yearold paul is loving this. The avs win 52. Stevie, you still got it. I almost mess ed it, but scott was telling me all the time to go to the net, go to the net, it took until the age of 50 to figure it out. Age before beauty, stevie. Full shift yesterday. Before that alumni match up, the gm signed a contract. The deal includes a full no trade clause for the next two years effective immediately. He has 8 assist in 61 games. The Tampa Bay Rays held their first work out of the spring in port charlotte. Manager kevin cash doesnt calling the batting practice the best hes seen. Newly acquired out fielder Cory Dickerson was also impressed. Beck come hit a home run and the guys hit the ball well. The pitchers have an upper hand for a few days until the guys can get timing. I think everybody with the aggressive approach and aggressive mindset took advantage of today. The rays open their preseason schedule next wednesday. Thats it for sports, im paul ryan. Thank you paul. Maybe youre looking to get the river walk. We have a great idea for you. Coming up next, the new Water Taxi Service that starts today, and how much youll have to shell out for an all day pass. Well have that rise and shine tampa bay. Its officially the weekend. Youre getting a live outside over downtown tampa. Youre having a great start to this saturday. Good morning, im adrienne pedersen. Thank you so much for joining us. Its time to check on your forecast with meteorologist mark collins. Mark, sunny, but chilly. A little chill in the air, thats for sure. Those who have gone out to grab the newspaper or walk the dog, you felt it out there. Its going to take a while to warmup here today. Even with the sunshine were seeing outside, were going to wind up in the mid60s this afternoon. Right now, 50 degrees and thats our warmer spots. You can see the san bars, a little peeler breaking on the sand bar there because the high surf weve had the last couple of days. The sea is dropping off. In fact, the surf has been really good the past couple of days, but today its 43 in clearwater. 42 in apollo beach. Brooksville, 31. 32 in crystal river. The sunshine will warm us up to 64 degrees. Still, below average temperatures for this time of year. Typically we see around 72, 74 degrees here in the bay area. Not today. Probably tomorrow. But we got the freeze out there. Will it be as cold here tonight, stay tuned, ill have the details to get you through the evening and through the weekend coming up. See you then. Thanks, mark. We have breaking news just into the news room. Take a look at your screen. An amber alert for a 2monthold baby. Taraji. Shes from Fort Lauderdale and Police Believe darkcolored sedan. Take a look at your screen. Anywhere. Right away. To an 8 on your side health alert. Flu season is here in florida. Its causing more than just headaches and chills. It can be deadly. News channel 8 mary mcguire is youre finding ways for us to stay healthy this weekend. Reporter yeah, the main message that the Florida Department of health wants to get out is that it is not too late to get out and get your flu theyre urging anyone shot. Its back with muscle aches, body pains and runny noses, the flu is rearing its ugly head again. Its also pretty much the time of year for florida. Flu season has been off to a slow start here in florida. But its back. In the last month, 1 influenza outbreak was reported in a polk county elementary one in a hillsboro county childcare facility, and yet another in a Pinellas County assisted living facility. Besides getting the flu shot, what can we do to stay healthy. When youre feeling bad or have a cold, stay at home. For those wanting a more holistic solution, relief can be found in the bottom of a juice bottle. You see Something Like this called pressed juice. It has 4 to 6 pounds of organic fruits and vegetables. Most people wont get that in a month. Squeeze juice works in south tampa and offers multiple concoctions meant to heal and kick folks kicking. We did speak with tgh about the amount of flu cases they have seen this year, and they said since january 1st, theyve seen 110 flu patients compared to last year, they saw 134. The numbers are down at this specific hospital. But thats not necessarily indicative of the flu overall since the flu season can hit at different times each and every year. The technical start to the flu season is october 1st. But again, people start to come down with the sickness at different times each and every year, and when one person gets it, the next person gets it. It works leak a line of dominos, adrienne. Its circulating around the news room. My families and friends have been sick. Thank you for the tips. Mary mcguire, live in tampa. Controversial video caught on a deputys body camera. The video is Getting National attention. Lets take a look. The Deputy Arrested tiffany. He accused her of resisting as she tries to take her into custody. Her head slams into a wall. You can see the video here. Theres debate about the deputys actions. Sheriff chris believes the womans own actions resulted in her injury. You could see the rough shaking around there hitting the ground. She has been arrested for the sale and trafficking of drugs, the president argues the economy is much better now than he focused on jobs when he stopped the government million. South america created 300 jobs exceeding its goal. Hulk hogan trial gets underway next week. Attorneys went over last minute details with the judge. Hogans whose real name is terry is suing galaker claiming that the company violated his Opening Statements are set for march 7th. Well let you know what happens there. Sarasota police are taking a different approach to stop credit card skimmers. The annoying device was popping up all over the bay area. We tell theyre stealing credit card data from innocent victims. Officers plan to meet regularly with gas station owners to open the pumps and take a look like theyre doing here. Theyre trying to stay one step ahead. What you see is once you get a handle on one thing, they figure out a different scheme. These people have nothing else to do other than steal money from hard working people. Credit card skimmers cost consumers, us, 2 billion a year. Wow right now, dozens of guns are missing in st. Petersburg. And now police need your help finding this guy. Take a look at your screen. Officers tell us Gregory Phillips stole them from an elderly mans home while he was supposed to be doing yardwork for him. Detectives found the guns. If you have information on the missing firearms, call st. Pete police right away. Are trying efforts to stop gun violence. 293 guns were reported stolen. 155 of those the mayor and police chief offered free gun locks to people as well as theyre asking Gun Shop Owners to remind their customers to make sure those guns are locked up. Seems like common sense there. Well, theres a new way to enjoy the tam per river walk channel district and davis island. It start that is weekend. Today, you can take a ride on a new Water Taxi Service. The mayor helped christen the water. They have restrooms. Thats important. As well as concessions. You can buy a ticket onboard and hop on and off all day long. This is a city on fire and its because of amenities like this, its because of a downtown like that, its because of a the service will run three boats between 14 stops in downtown tampa 7days a week. Tickets will normally be 15, but since its opening weekend, an all day pass is 10 bucks. It seems like if youre going to pay 15, you should probably really take advantage of it and spend the entire day cruising around. I agree. 15 is worth it. I would rather pay that than sit at a red light. Oh, my goodness. Yes. With the bikes and the water taxis a lot going on. Take a look at pictures that some of our viewers sent in. Well do that coming up. I want to show you a heads up, whats in store for us. A warmup, well, have you to wait until tomorrow. Im promising warmer weather and what about showers . Its in the forecast as well. And is this the last of the cold . Stay tuned. Ill let you know coming up. Plus heres what youll see on monday morning on news extra day. Im lee span and im explain what it has to do with earths span around the sun. Wake up with news channel 8 today. To keep it strong. elephant noise donkey noise hey candidates, welcome back. Make you have a sweet tookt. I do. We have a healthy way to satisfy it. We reporter today were making chia pudding. Theres a few simple steps, but once you get through them, its good. Its packed with protein. Check out the chia pins on pintrest. Its a sweet almond base. Jeff at squeeze first of course, youll need chia seeds. You need one see how he sprinkles them in slowly. Thats to avoid clumps. You want to keep stirring it. Its important to keep it smooth and help the chia seeds soak up the almond milk. It will chill for hours. Now to the toppings. Coconut shredding. Take your scoop of almond coconut shreds and make it nice and pretty. Honey almonds on top. We make something i have to taste it when i make something on pinterest. Until next week, happy pinning. Gayle guyardo. News channel 8. Hmm. Check this out picture of a surfer sharing a wave with a shark. This time of year, theyre common along the palm beach water where this photo was taken. Estimated between 10,000, 12,000 show up this time of year where the water is warmer in the gulf of mexico. They pig out on the food. If you go to the beach, chances are youre not going to get wet. Its 62 degrees. You have to give it an 8 today because of this sunshine. Plenty of it and tomorrow, that beach scale will probably go up to a 10 because well see comfortable 70degree reading and a little warmer. The seas will be calm. If youre a boater, youll be able to get out there especially offshore waters. As we look at the numbers, youre slowly rebounding off of the deep freeze this morning where were at 32 for several hours. In fact, brooksville, a little cooler. 31 degrees. Tampa 44. 51 st. Pete. And today, were going to have just abundant sunshine. No complication to this forecast with the sunshine were seeing over the gulf. You see cloudiness in the white over the gulf and the atlantic. I think we remain sunny through the day. 64 will be the high with a light wind out of the north, northwest at 10 mile an hour. As we head through the afternoon hours, well see temperatures warmer over the inland zones, but as we head towards sunset, temperatures pull back. Dry. Dew points are in the mid30s this morning. So about 8 00, 55 degrees. But lets get you into early tomorrow morning. Notice, youll see pockets of upper 30s in our northern zones and again, you might have frost like what youre seeing out there this morning in citrus and milder temperatures, but still cold tomorrow morning. A change changes will evolve as we head the ridge slides across florida. And that will promote a milder flow out of the east as we head into tomorrow and that sticks around through at least tuesday. This front will washout. This wont reach us, but by wednesday another one will and that front will give us a small chance of rain. Remember, this week, we had very Severe Weather with tornado down around port charlie but this front will come through with a gentle kiss. It could be the freeze were seeing this because it looks like in the first couple of weeks in march, no big cold air outbreaks and as we head towards the end of march, average temperatures in the upper 70s. This winter has not been bad. El nino keeps us milder. It could be a good weekend to try out the water taxi in downtown tampa. Thats a great idea. I love that. I keep bringing it up. I like the colors. The orange colors. Thanks mark. Im sure youve noticed the new facebook emojis. And well show you whats lowes presents how to put your foot in your mouth. Man, wish my yard looked like yours. Hey, the grass is always greener on the other side of the. Sorry. Now get 20 off stagreen fertilizer, welcome back. Lots of love for facebook emojis. Im sure youve seen them, plus eye this is going after social media. Plus robots are getting smarter. Us. Reporter nissan disabled their apps over concerns it could be hacked. A researcher found a vulnerability to allow hackers to control heating and cooler systems blue look at the driving record. Although nissan hasnt said much about it, its responding to customers concerns on twitter. This is one of their responses and it says an updated app is coming soon. Isis is threatening Facebook Mark zuckerberg and ceo accounts and changing and posting isis propaganda. Theyre threatening to delete together. This is after an ongoing crack down by the social networks on terrorist accounts. Trending, robots getting knocked down. This is an mem. These robots can pick themselves back up and thats been an issue with still, theres concern that theyre going to revolt against us all. Queue the terminator music. Do emojis. Facebook rolled out love, ha, ha, wild, sat and angry this week. Theyre cool, but you can only pick one to use per post. So if you want to go all emoji crazy, you have to do it old school in the Comment Section which is your favorite new emoji. I keep pressing the shocked one. I think its funny. One lucky pup py is going to help others. Employees with gte financial opened their hearts to help a puppy become a guide dog. They presented a 5,000 check. It helps take care of the puppy as it goes through training. The donations like this one help the organization place more than 100 dogs each year. Weve had a lot of different types of disability or sometimes just need that extra help and support and southeast guide dogs does that. Its an amazing o that focuses on people. An organization doing a lot of good there. The donation allows gte financial to name the pup. I wonder what theyll choose. Its almost time for our favorite story of the week. A unicorn jail break on a california highway. Thats right. We said unicorn. You might want to rub your eye s s. From a Birthday Party and led know you can keep your financial big picture under control. Know you can see how much you have to spend and whether you should transfer funds. Know you can easily keep track of what youre putting away. And know youre budgeted for the great escape. Now to our favorite story of the week. So lets take a look. This was on the loose of a cal california highway. No, youre not sleep walking. Its a unicorn. Not really. Who makes peoples dreams come true by posing as a unicorn during photo shoots. The own certificate making changes to make sure she doesnt get loose again. She got in a time out because she was being a bad pony. Awe, that little girl is so cute. The ponys owner did not get any kind of citation. Im sure that made a lot of peoples days even if it disrupted the highway. The unicorns have magical powers. I would be taking pictures. Thanks for joining us. Our next newscast at 6 00, but well be show. Have a great day. Of people die within 5 years of getting diagnosed. You can do. Talk to your doctor about Heart Failure treatment options. Because the more you know, the more likely you are. V dog whimpering i do everything on the internet. But, its kind of slow. My friends say i should get fios because its the fastest. I just downloaded 600 photos in 60 seconds. Thats seriously better. husband were out of 2 i wonder what else could be better around here . husband i heard that. Switching to Better Internet is internet available, with uploads up to 5x faster than cable. Get 100 meg upload and download speeds. Plus tv and phone for just 69. 99 a month online with no annual contract. Switch to better. Switch to fios. Good morning. Joined at the hip. Shooting from the lip. Marco rubio, your campaign is almost over, buddy. Chris christie turns attack dog for donald trump. Rubio firing back. Donald probably needs a lifeline after last night. He called in Chris Christie. How this tag teamould impact trump on super tuesday. While the democratic side, the focus is on south carolina. Hillary clinton and Bernie Sanders taking shots at each other as voters s s go to the polls in the palmetto state. Heroic chief