Arctic Blast Targets Eastern US This Weekend
Much of Florida has largely been spared from the extreme cold the last few weeks, but that’s about to change. Another blast of even colder air will spill south and east late this week and weekend, giving those as far south as the Florida Keys a run with potential record low temperatures.
This will not only be the coldest air of the season for the Sunshine State, but possibly the coldest air in more than 15 years in parts of South Florida.
South Florida will go from record warmth to record cold in less than a week. Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach all broke record highs Monday afternoon, and these were all long-standing daily records. This weekend they could face record cold with record lows and record cold highs in jeopardy. Talk about roller coaster.
The cold air will arrive on Saturday and peak on Sunday and Monday. On Sunday morning, northern Florida will bottom out in the teens, and temperatures will drop to the 20s as far south as Orlando. Highs in central Florida Sunday may not make it out of the 40s with a stiff wind.
If the cold air isn’t enough, there’s an ever so slight chance that parts of northern Florida could see flurries Saturday night, which would include parts of the Tampa Bay area. That’s something we don’t see every often.
The National Weather Service Office in Melbourne is warning of “hard freeze” conditions both Sunday and Monday mornings. They are urging everyone to protect their plants, pets, people and pipes as we go into this unusual cold snap.
Even South Florida will experience the cold. Lows will be in the mid 30s as far south as Fort Lauderdale and Miami on Sunday morning, with wind chills at or below freezing. Afternoon highs will only make it to the mid 50s. Even parts of the Keys will drop to the 40s Sunday morning and stay in the 50s for the afternoon.
(MORE: Winter Storm Fern Recap)
Many dozens of daily record cold high and low temperatures will fall by the wayside this week in the South and East. That’s tough to do during what is already the coldest time of year.
(CURRENT MAPS: Temperatures | Wind Chills)
The Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast
This next round of record cold will arrive in the Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Thursday and last through Saturday. We could see dozens of records fall as temperatures drop to the single digits and even below zero from Ohio to New Jersey.
When you factor in the wind chill, or the “feels like” temperature, temperatures will feel even colder.
Even areas around Washington, D.C., is expected to drop to the single digits Friday morning. This will be a similar trend all the way up the I-95 corridor, with many places dropping to the single digits, with wind chills below zero.
Deep South, Southeast
This second round of cold will arrive in the Deep South and Southeast on Friday, impacting many of the same people who have just been hit by Winter Storm Fern. Cold records could fall from Arkansas to the Carolinas.
On Saturday, high temperatures will struggle to get above freezing, even for places like Montgomery, Alabama, and Columbus, Georgia.
(MORE: What Is Wind Chill And Why Can It Have Dangerous Consequences?)
Lows bottom out Sunday morning when temperatures will drop into the teens as far south as New Orleans and the Florida Panhandle. Widespread temperatures will drop onto the teens and single digits for places in and around Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville.
Morning wind chills in the South are forecast to stay in the single digits and teens for many places. Atlanta could wake up on Sunday morning with a wind chill of only 3 degrees.
Records Already Set Early This Week
More than a dozen record lows were set Monday morning across the Deep South, many in just the state of Texas alone, as temperatures dropped well below freezing.
Some of the cities with new daily record lows include:
New Orleans: 27 degrees
San Antonio, Texas: 19 degrees
Austin, Texas: 19 degrees
Brownsville, Texas: 30 degrees
Tulsa, Oklahoma: 0 degrees
Springfield, Missouri: -11 degrees
What’s more impressive is that some of the old records were long-standing, meaning we haven’t seen this severe of a cold snap since the 1940s or the 1960s in some cases. In San Antonio, the previous record low was set back in the 1897.
A handful of record lows were also set Tuesday across parts of Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina as morning lows Tuesday dropped below freezing yet again.
Some of the cities with new daily record lows include:
Lufkin, Texas: 18 degrees
Austin, Texas: 16 degrees
Harlingen, Texas: 29 degrees
Vicksburg, Mississippi: 17 degrees
Victoria, Texas: 18 degrees
Fort Smith, Arkansas: 4 degrees
New Iberia, Louisiana: 20 degrees
Florence, South Carolina: 14 degrees
Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world’s biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.
