JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It’s hard to believe that we were in the 90s just a few days ago! Mother Nature has certainly reminded us that we are still in winter. Why was it much colder?
Behind the strong front that brought us severe weather yesterday, colder air funneled into the region due to the strong northwesterly wind. Notice on the image above how deep the cold air has pushed south. That’s why it was much colder this morning.
In fact, several spots north and west of the metro dropped below freezing this morning. The average low for this time of year is 51 degrees, which means temperatures were around 25 degrees below normal.
Several spots will see another night of temperatures near or below freezing, especially north and west of the metro.
Frost and freeze alerts are in effect for those areas overnight tonight into Wednesday morning. Make sure to take protective measures, especially if you have outdoor plants.
The cold is short-lived, though. High temperatures will climb from the 60s on Wednesday to the 80s over the weekend and overnight lows will be well above freezing.
While Jacksonville International was well above freezing this morning, it’s interesting to note that the average last freeze is on February 21st. The latest last freeze of the season occurred on April 8th, 2007. The temperature dropped to 31 degrees on that date.