Plummeting temperatures, wildfire warnings, feisty winds and freeze alerts rattled Florida awake early Monday, Feb. 23 from a spat of record hot days and with even cooler weather expected Tuesday.
A cold front attached to an intense blizzard walloping Maryland through Maine dropped Sunshine State temperatures by 40 degrees or more in some areas Monday.
In West Palm Beach, a 90-degree record high Sunday plunged to an unofficial low of 47 degrees early Monday, a significant 43-degree drop in 16 hours. Fort Lauderdale and Miami also trounced their previous heat records Sunday, reaching 89 and 88 degrees, respectively. Monday morning both were in the low 50s.
That follows more than 20 heat records set around the state Saturday ahead of the front that will bring even colder weather before temperatures begin to warm mid-week.
“It was a very big drop,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ana Torres-Vazquez about Monday morning’s temperatures. “It’s basically the strength of the nor’easter that is driving that air to come down through our area.”
How cold will it get in Florida this week?
Early Tuesday, temperatures are expected challenge cold records statewide, bottoming out in the upper 20s in Tallahassee to low 40s and upper 30s in South Florida.
If the forecast holds true, Key West, Naples, Fort Myers, Melbourne and Jacksonville could register record cold. Most areas of the state will be at least 20 degrees below normal early Tuesday.
The departure from normal for low temperatures Tuesday, Feb. 24 will be significantly below what’s typical for Florida with some areas seeing 20 degrees or more below average for this time of year.
In Fort Myers, the forecast low temperature Tuesday is 36 degrees, which would be the coldest for that day in 121 years of records.
And it is expected to remain cool through the day.
The daytime forecast high temperature of 62 degrees in Key West on Tuesday would be 16 degrees below normal and break the cold record for the day of 63 degrees set in 1989.
National Weather Service meteorologists in Key West called it a “bring it” cold front.
“This front will bring another blast of much cooler weather to the Keys, giving Florida a taste of winter yet again,” they wrote in a Sunday forecast.
Red flag warnings mean wildfire dangers as drought persists
The unseasonably chilly winter weather, which triggered freeze warnings from Jacksonville to inland Collier County, comes with increasing concerns about wildfires with nearly the entire state in drought and the potential for gusty winds to stoke the smallest of embers.
A red flag fire warning is in effect from the Big Bend region to the Keys including the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Red flag warnings are triggered, in part, by a combination of strong winds and low humidities.
Freeze warnings, red flag warnings, and cold weather advisories cover Florida following on Monday Feb. 23 following a strong cold front.
“We have a deficit of rainfall going back to November,” said South Florida Water Management District Chief Engineer John Mitnik in a meeting earlier this month. “We are in the second driest dry season since the 1990s.”
Significant rainfall isn’t expected until March or later, Mitnik said.
The U.S. Drought Monitor’s Feb. 19 report shows 67% of the state in extreme drought, which is the third highest level on a 4-tier severity scale. Splashes of severe and moderate drought splotch across the remainder of the state.
Water managers have already issued enhanced restrictions in some areas — voluntary and those that threaten fines for a violation — and are preparing more extreme measures such as installing pumps to suck water from Lake Okeechobee if levels dwindle to the point that gravity is no longer enough to fill canals that carve through South Florida like veins.
Around the state, 78 wildfires burned on Feb. 23. More than 39,620 acres have already burned in Florida this year from 907 wildfires.
“The use of open flames, power equipment or anything that may produce sparks and burning embers is strongly discouraged through Tuesday,” AccuWeather meteorologists said. “Cigarette butts should be properly extinguished.”
Will iguanas fall from trees in Florida?
Mother Nature dealt a blow to South Florida’s growing iguana population in early February with freezing or near freezing temperatures Feb. 1 to Feb. 3. The days-long chill left iguanas cold-stunned or dead in what is likely the largest culling of the population since the extended wintry weather of 2010.
There were no estimates of the burgeoning iguana population ahead of the frigid early February weather and there are no estimates of how many were felled by it, although they were still falling dead from trees a week after the cold snap.
Iguanas that survived the Arctic blast, may make it through the current chill with temperatures not expected to be as cold for as long.
And there are enough of them left to keep the reptile on the state’s Dirty Dozen list for most harmful invasive species.
“Distribution and abundance of green iguanas increased after the 2010 freeze,” said UF wildlife ecology professor Frank Mazzotti in an email. “I expect the same to happen here.”
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for the USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA. She covers weather, the environment and critters as the Embracing Florida reporter. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida cold front means wildfire threats, freezes, more dead iguanas
