Miami Beach has a worst winter than Fairbanks

[Scott Patterson]

I see what they are saying (based on averages vs this year), but IMHO they really need to rephrase it better:

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=134945&catid=188

Here is the entire list for the Worst Winter Weather U.S. Cities of 2009-2010 season:

1. Miami Beach, FL
2. TIE: Baltimore, MD, and Washington, DC
3. Philadelphia, PA
4. Dallas, TX
5. Oklahoma City, OK
6. Atlantic City, NJ
7. Fargo, ND
8. Atlanta, GA
9. Des Moines, IA
10. Portland, ME

Best Winter Weather U.S. Cities of 2009-2010 season:
1. Seattle, WA
2. Taos, NM
3. Portland, OR
4. Honolulu, HI
5. Spokane, WA
6. Alpena, MI
7. Denver, CO
8. Fairbanks, AK
9. Los Angeles, CA

It's nice to know that Fairbanks AK has better winters than Miami Beach (scroll down for calendar) :

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/PAFA/2010/1/27/MonthlyHistory.html

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KMIA/2010/1/27/MonthlyHistory.html

[jinftl]

I would have thought Key West would have taken that honor since they did one better than Miami Beach in terms of where this winter ranked on the 'coldest scale'.....

LOOKING BACK AT THE ASTRONOMICAL WINTER...DECEMBER 22 2009 THROUGH MARCH 202010...THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE AT THE KEY WEST INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTWAS 65.3 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. THIS TIES THE WINTER OF 1977-1978 ASTHE COLDEST ON RECORD.

The average winter temperature in Key West is 71.3 deg, so this winter was a full 6.0 deg below normal. Miami Beach had an average Dec-Feb temperature this year of 65.2 deg, or 5.6 deg below normal.

On the other hand, Fairbanks, AK had a balmy Dec-Jan-Feb average temp of -2.5 deg F this winter, which was 1.9 deg above normal. This was also 68 deg colder than the average on Miami Beach!

[Patrick99]

Also, I would hardly call it a "terrible winter," as many of those days were exceedingly pleasant....lol

It was just that one weekend in January that was pretty miserable.

[Scott Patterson]

Also, I would hardly call it a "terrible winter," as many of those days were exceedingly pleasant....lol

Just for the heck of it, I compared Miami's "cold January" with our "hot July and August". It was quite interesting since the average temperatures were within one degree of each other for July and the same for August (though the daily ranges were farther apart).

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KCAG/2009/7/28/MonthlyHistory.html

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KCAG/2009/8/28/MonthlyHistory.html

Miami January vs Craig July

January in Miami had an average temperature of 64F. We had an average temperature of 65F in July, within one degree of what Miami had in January. Miami had an average low of 56F for January 2010. We had an average low of 46F for July 2010, which was 10 degrees colder than what Miami had in January. Daytime temperatures were warmer here with 72F vs 86F.

January 2010 in Miami had 12 days where the temperature dipped to 50F or below. Here, July 2010 had 27 days where the temperature dipped to 50F or below. Miami did drop to 35F in January while July here only dropped to 39F. We also had 5 days above 90, while Miami didn't have any, but did reach 86.

Miami January vs Craig August

January in Miami had an average temperature of 64F. We had an average temperature of 64F in August, which is the same that Miami had in January. Miami had an average low of 56F for January 2010. We had an average low of 44F for August 2010, which was 12 degrees colder than what Miami had in January. Daytime temperatures were warmer here with 72F vs 84F.

January 2010 in Miami had 12 days where the temperature dipped to 50F or below. Here, August 2010 had 30 days where the temperature dipped to 50F or below. WE dropped to 35F in August, the same as Miami did in January. We also had 6 days above 90, while Miami didn't have any, but did reach 86.

Anyway, it is interesting that what would be considered to be hot summer weather in some parts of the country is considered to be cold winter weather in others.

[jinftl]

Agree, what is considered an awful winter is a realtive concept....a "bad" day in paradise can still be better than a "good" day in 'heck'.

In this 'worst winter in the u.s.', the breakdown of what that meant for Miami was:
(data from 12/1/09 through 2/28/10):

First the heat highlights:
# Days with high temps of 80 deg or warmer: 32 (35% of the days this winter reached or surpassed 80 deg)
# Days with high temps of 70 deg or warmer: 66 (or 73.3% of the days this winter were at least 70 deg)
# Nights with low temps over 70 deg: 24 (26.7% of the nights this winter were a balmy 70 deg or higher for the low temp)

Now the cold highlights:
# Days with high temps under 70 deg: 24 (or 26.7% of the days this winter).
# Days with high temps under 60 deg: 2 (or 2.2% of the days this winter)
# Days with high temps under 50 deg: 1 (that was a cold one....and accounted for 1.1% of the days this past winter).

# Nights with low temps under 50 deg: 17 (or 18.9% of the nights from this past winter).
# Nights with low temps under 40 deg: 3 (or 3.3% of the nights this winter).


In other words, in this 'worst winter in the u.s.', approximately 1 out of 3 days still hit 80 deg or higher and 1 out of 4 nights stayed above 70 deg for the low temp. On the other hand, 1 out of 4 days didn't reach 70 deg for the high temp, but only 2 days this whole winter didn't even warm to at least 60 deg. About 1 out of 5 nights this winter had low temps below 50 degree, with 3 of those nights dipping below 40 deg (coldest night this winter was 35 deg).

"Worst" never sounded so good!

[NDG]

I love the way the media tells the story, just because Miami Beach had the second coldest winter compared to average it does not mean that it had a worst winter compared to other cities like Denver, Seattle, Fairbanks, etc....
People in those cities could only wished they would had had a winter like south FL had this past winter, lol.

[Scott Patterson]

People in those cities could only wished they would had had a winter like south FL had this past winter, lol.

No doubt, although some of us would be really sweating with the heat and high humidity on some of those winter days.

Anyway, I have a question for anyone who lives in Florida. I pulled out the weather history of one of our July days that we have had in the past (high of 37 and low of 97).

Would the below be considered to be a really hot day or a really cold day?

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KCAG/2007/7/2/DailyHistory.html

See how quick the temperatures go from the 30's to the 90's on clear days:

[NDG]

Both, lol.

But what a heck of a wide temp range.

[MGC]

I was down in South Florida this winter. I nearly froze. We went to the Everglades and froze, we went to Key West and froze. I've been to KW a dozen or more times and never had to wear a coat. On a side note, here along the Mississippi coast, we have not observed a 80 degree day since Nov 5. Living near the beach and with the cold GOM I doubt I see one till mid April unless a dry west wind blows in.....MGC

[jinftl]

In one day, the entire typcial annual range of temps in Miami was reached!!! Folks wouldn't know what do down here....the day would start with a Wind Chill Advisory and end with high heat (although the humidity is low)...that is just too much of a range in one day for this floridian to handle. By summer, we usually see about a 10-15 degree spread in temp between day and night at most....except along the immediate coast, where there are many times when the high on Miami Beach will be 88 or 89 deg and the low that night will be 82 or 83 deg (with dewpts in the high 70s). I've seen a high of 89 and low of 85 in places like Key West too.

People in those cities could only wished they would had had a winter like south FL had this past winter, lol.

No doubt, although some of us would be really sweating with the heat and high humidity on some of those winter days.

Anyway, I have a question for anyone who lives in Florida. I pulled out the weather history of one of our July days that we have had in the past (high of 37 and low of 97).

Would the below be considered to be a really hot day or a really cold day?

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KCAG/2007/7/2/DailyHistory.html

See how quick the temperatures go from the 30's to the 90's on clear days: