Florida Weather

[gatorcane]

Huge bust for the models. Tampa Intl got down to 35F, a far cry from the 25F forecasted.

[psyclone]

Woke up at 4am to 32.8F here in New Port Richey (one mile from coast) when it was already down to 35.6F at 9pm, so it definitely leveled off some. Now at 545am we finally got below freezing at 31.0F although my digital is 10ft up. That is a significant drop just before dawn that is expected. However, it could have been much worse. Still, considering the lack of northern snow cover, an obviously warm land and a warmish GOM this is impressive. I seriously doubt the "warm" temps that are appearing. Tampa reports a lower dewpoint than I do yet they are staying at 36F. My guess is the "tourist thermometer" is at work again (as we often joke about like last years deicing debacle at TIA when it was 34F). 24F at Zephyrhills and 25F at Floral City show the extent. Balm FAWN south of Tampa is at 27F!

balm is always going to get colder than tpa. the small latitude advantage of balm will in no way compensate for the urban heat island/closer to the coast location of tpa. in fact, in cold race between tpa and arcadia, or even palmdale or lake placid, you want to place your chips on tpa every time for freeze avoidance. they're not cooking the books. they don't have to. BTW, my official forecast low busted by a whopping 9 degrees (34 actual vs 25 forecast). let the warmup begin:).

[NDG]

I think it was just a case of forecasting the worst case scenario by the Tampa Bay area NWS Office because not even MOS guidance were showing temps getting down that low in the Tampa & St Pete areas.

[gsytch]

Yes, the heat island effect was in full throttle. 30F at my house 4 hrs + or at freezing with plant damage everywhere but only superficial (Cannas, Brugs etc which always need to be cut back anyway). Bromeliads look good, as do my Papaya oddly enough tho it is sheltered. Tonight will be interesting with calm winds and so far temps are not rising that fast.

[gsytch]

Here is an interesting fact - it was warmer in Medicine Hat, Alberta CN than it was in Tampa FL yesterday! Tampa stayed in the 40s all day while MH hit 55F. Maybe Medicine Hat is the new black? I mean, record highs were set from ND to UT to CA while we froze. What comes up must go down.

[NDG]

Yes, the heat island effect was in full throttle. 30F at my house 4 hrs + or at freezing with plant damage everywhere but only superficial (Cannas, Brugs etc which always need to be cut back anyway). Bromeliads look good, as do my Papaya oddly enough tho it is sheltered. Tonight will be interesting with calm winds and so far temps are not rising that fast.

Heat Island effect plus the fact that the winds in the city never died out so the winds kept mixing the atmosphere which was actually warmer down to the surface, the trough along with the low heights moved away right away from FL after yesterday morning.

Tonight if dewpoints go up I only see mostly a problem with frost in areas that the winds go calm, especially closer to the surface high axis which will be closer to SW FL.

[northjaxpro]

It appears that we did not break or tie the record low at the NWS Jax office. The temperatures leveled off overnight and the NWS office so far has recorded a low of 24 degrees, which is 2 degrees off the record low for this date.

Well, the temperature actually did drop the two more degrees after I posted this earlier today before I left for work. The record low of 22 degrees was indeed tied at the NWS office in Jax.

[northjaxpro]

Frost is already forming outside now and the temperature sits at 33 degrees. Still looking at upper 20s here in north Jacksonville area by sunrise, which will finish off three consecutive mornings of freezng temperatures here for this event. A nice moderation of temps will begin tomorrow and as we head into the weekend, temps will be approaching 70 degrees.

[gsytch]

I take that back! It was warmer in Calgary, Alberta than in Miami! Funny thing this weather when it turns up and down. 36F right now. Uh oh........

[NDG]

I take that back! It was warmer in Calgary, Alberta than in Miami! Funny thing this weather when it turns up and down. 36F right now. Uh oh........

Are you sure about that.
Because I see that Miami saw a high in the upper 60s today while Calgary's high was 60 degrees, yesterday Calgary stayed in the 40s while Miami's daytime high was in the mid 50s.

[Sanibel]

Cold shot down to 40*. Should pull up to 69* tomorrow.

[NDG]

Because high pressure ridge is over central FL frost everywhere this morning in my area as winds are just about calm and dewpoints went up during the night, the bigger killer to tender vegetation.
While areas north of FL are warmer than we are.

[gsytch]

According to the record highs listed, Calgary hit 59F while Miami never hit 60F. This was for the day before. This morning there was frost here , as expected, and this was what I was worried about. My digital never went to freezing, dipping to 33F sometimes during the night and then was 34F/35F from 3am to sunrise. It was already 35.6F at 11pm so lucky the dewpoints came up. There is another cold shot mid-month, and again they are wavering on its intensity. Until then let the warmup begin. How close is the end of February???

[Sanibel]

That chilly air was nasty and tripled my kilowatts in electric heat. It stayed too long and is finally pushing through. I wish some of you could feel the tropical sun that is finally penetrating the cold air.

[gatorcane]

Yes feeling it, it is generally warmer on southeast coast of FL than there though (cold wasn't as bad here, stayed in the 40s at night), winds shift to the east soon off the Gulf stream current and it is amazing how much warmer the airmass gets when that happens with Gulf stream SSTs running around 75F, though drainage flow sets up at night so gulf stream airmass stays offshore allow temps to slip into mid 50s tonight. However I have seen times when temps start in the low or mid 40s in the morning here along the coast with light NW winds then winds shift to the east and the temp warms from 40s to 60s within literally 30 minutes like a mini-warm front comes through. The gulfstream is pretty amazing.

You can see the gulf stream current very clearly here on this graphic of current SSTs as it runs up the SE Coast of the state forming a narrow band between SE FL and the Bahamas:

[gsytch]

If you discount the fact Miami's high that day was at midnight - it actually fell and stayed in the 50's all that day while Calgary hit 59F that day. Amazing! 68F in St Louis today while we just topped 70F. I also saw that North Dakota has no snowcover on like 99% of the land, in January. Everything is topsy turvy this year!

[Sanibel]

Check out the cold cane (joking):


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/gmex/flash-wv.html

[NDG]

According to the record highs listed, Calgary hit 59F while Miami never hit 60F. This was for the day before. This morning there was frost here , as expected, and this was what I was worried about. My digital never went to freezing, dipping to 33F sometimes during the night and then was 34F/35F from 3am to sunrise. It was already 35.6F at 11pm so lucky the dewpoints came up. There is another cold shot mid-month, and again they are wavering on its intensity. Until then let the warmup begin. How close is the end of February???

I thought you were comparing the highs of the same day, I realized later that you compared Miami's daytime high on Tuesday to Calgary's daytime high on Wednesday.
I usually hear people compare daytime highs of two different places for the same day.

[NDG]

Driving around Orlando the last couple of days I guess Thursday's frosty morning in some of the outskirts did not do much damage as I thought it was going to do.
As I got closer to middle of town not a sign of the cold air we had.
This was nothing close to January '10 & December '10 freezes & frosty mornings.
Looking in the horizon there is no signs right now of any freezing temps coming back to central FL at least in the 7-10 day range, time to thaw out.
Now we just need some rain, badly. There is a decent chance early Wednesday morning, hopefully, but usually any squall lines that move in central FL during the early morning hours they seem to evaporate as they get close to the Orlando area, only getting a few sprinkles.

[gsytch]

Same here, although I do not go back to school until MOnday and my campus is in Hudson, far north and rural Pasco Co., MUCH colder there than here. Bananas do not look good but none are frozen, just damaged. My Papaya is fine. Untouched. Blooming yes it is sheltered but still. The coldest I see is middle 40's for Fri/Sat then another warmup. Keep fingers crossed that we get no more cold. The long range is still holding Above Normal for Feb, but dry. I've had about an inch of rain since Halloween. DRY! We need rainfall badly going into our typically dry spring.