Weather — Palm Bay, Florida

The National Weather Service office in Melbourne, at 421 Croton Road, writes the official forecast and the severe storm warnings for Palm Bay.

The Palm Bay forecast page on forecast.weather.gov names Melbourne, FL as the local forecast office and prints the office address at the bottom: National Weather Service Melbourne, FL, 421 Croton Road, Melbourne, FL 32935 (NWS point forecast for Palm Bay). The office lists its public phone as 321-255-0212 (NWS Melbourne radar page). The station digest lists Palm Bay among the communities within a short distance of the office, so the forecasters responsible for Palm Bay work in the next city north rather than in a distant regional center.

NWS Melbourne carries weather forecasts and severe storm warning responsibility for 10 East-Central Florida counties and the adjacent Atlantic coastal waters out to 60 nautical miles (NWS Melbourne station digest). The same digest describes a twenty-four hour operation for public, marine, aviation, hydrologic and fire weather services. It also calls Palm Bay the largest city in Brevard County, with a population of 119,760 in 2020, and notes that Palm Bay adjoins Melbourne to the south.

The office has served Palm Bay for decades. The Melbourne office was occupied in July 1989 and was the first field facility completed under the Modernization and Restructuring of the National Weather Service, according to the same station digest.

Palm Bay sits in the Weather Service zone named Inland Southern Brevard (FLZ547), and its point forecast is computed for 27.99 N, 80.66 W at an elevation of 30 feet.

The point forecast is the most precise public forecast for the city. The page heading reads Point Forecast: Palm Bay FL 27.99 N 80.66 W (Elev. 30 ft), and the seven-day block on that page carries the title Extended Forecast for Palm Bay FL (NWS point forecast). The forecast is computed for that single spot, so it describes one location rather than every Palm Bay neighborhood from the Melbourne line to the southwest streets off Degroodt Road.

The zone forecast is broader. The Palm Bay point page links to the Zone Area Forecast for Inland Southern Brevard, FL, and that zone page gives a detailed forecast for Inland Southern Brevard in plain text, with highs, lows, wind and rain chances written as ranges such as mid 80s (Inland Southern Brevard zone forecast). The zone text speaks for the inland part of south Brevard as a whole, while the Palm Bay point forecast describes one spot, so the two can show slightly different numbers for the same afternoon.

The live temperature, wind and humidity shown on the Palm Bay forecast page come from the automated station at Melbourne International Airport, identifier KMLB.

The Palm Bay point page lists those readings under Current conditions at Melbourne International Airport (KMLB), giving the station location as Lat 28.1 N, Lon 80.64 W and its elevation as 20 feet (NWS point forecast). That places the sensor north of the Palm Bay forecast point at 27.99 N, roughly 0.11 degrees of latitude away, on airport land in Melbourne. The observation describes conditions at the airport, not in Bayside Lakes, Port Malabar or along Turkey Creek, so the forecast for Palm Bay and the airport reading are separate products.

The Weather Service also keeps a regional roundup titled Latest weather observations around Palm Bay FL (NWS observation roundup for Palm Bay). In the October 12, 2026 version, Melbourne International Airport was the first station listed, followed by stations such as Cocoa at Patrick, Titusville and Vero Beach Municipal Airport. Comparing the Melbourne airport reading with the Vero Beach airport reading is a quick way to see whether a front or a sea breeze has reached south Brevard yet.

Palm Bay is scanned by the Melbourne WSR-88D Doppler radar, station KMLB, and its climate averages come from two NCEI stations: the Melbourne airport and a cooperative station in Palm Bay.

The Weather Service radar catalog lists station KMLB, name Melbourne, type WSR-88D, at 28.11305 N and 80.65444 W (NWS radar station KMLB). The office history dates the start of Melbourne radar operations to October 1991, making it the nation's second WSR-88D (NWS Melbourne office history). A separate Palm Bay radar page on this site explains how to read KMLB imagery, beam height over the city and the dual-polarization products.

For averages, NCEI's 1991 to 2020 normals give Melbourne International Airport an annual mean temperature of 73.1 degrees and 50.79 inches of precipitation a year (NCEI normals, Melbourne airport). The cooperative station listed as USC00086761 in Palm Bay shows an annual mean of 72.6 degrees and 55.55 inches (NCEI normals, Palm Bay station). The month-by-month highs, lows and rainfall for both stations are on the Palm Bay climate page; the difference of nearly 5 inches a year between the two stations is one reason to name the station behind any Palm Bay average.

The City of Palm Bay sends emergency notices through AlertBrevard, by phone, email, text and social media, on top of the warnings issued by NWS Melbourne.

The city's emergency preparedness page states that the City of Palm Bay uses AlertBrevard to send EMERGENCY notifications by phone, email, text and social media to keep citizens informed of emergencies (City of Palm Bay Emergency Preparedness). The same page lists the Palm Bay Citizens information hotline at (321) 726-5683, the Brevard County Emergency Management citizen hotline at 211, and Florida 511 for severe weather alerts, evacuation routes and road and bridge closures. The new resident page repeats the AlertBrevard sign-up and gives City Hall's address as 120 Malabar Road, Palm Bay, FL 32907 (City of Palm Bay new resident information).

School closings follow a separate chain. According to the city page, the superintendent of Brevard Public Schools is the only person who will give the directive that schools are to close due to extreme weather conditions, and the district then notifies families by voicemail, email, app push notice and text. That rule covers Palm Bay's public campuses along with every other Brevard school.

Radio is the backup when power and cell service fail during a storm. The NWS Melbourne station digest lists NOAA Weather Radio among the office's services, with four radios including Melbourne, Ft. Pierce, Orlando and Daytona Beach (NWS Melbourne station digest). The digest adds that the office oversees automated and manual observation programs at a dozen airports and a cooperative program of about 25 stations, the network that supplies readings across east central Florida.

Severe storm warnings themselves come from NWS Melbourne. The point forecast page for Palm Bay links to the office's Seven Day Graphical Hazardous Weather Outlook, and the same page names Melbourne, FL as the local forecast office (NWS point forecast for Palm Bay). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the National Weather Service and City of Palm Bay websites.