A second February cold front will assail Florida this week on the heels the previous punch of winter, which was still challenging records Tuesday with lingering frigid air.
The front, which is attached to a stewing area of low pressure pushing through the bottom tier of the country, is forecast to reach the Panhandle late Wednesday before sliding through the state Thursday.
Temperatures behind this cold front are not expected to be history-making, with the coolest air sticking around only for a few days before a weekend warm up.
“For Florida, it will be another round of 15 degrees or so below normal, but the key is it’s a brief one and you are warming up by this weekend,” said meteorologist Joe Wegman with the Weather Prediction Center. “It’s going to be a quick shot of colder air.”
Still, it will continue a week where daily average temperatures statewide were up to 21 degrees below normal. Overnight low temperatures were as much as 31 degrees colder than average:
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Fort Pierce’s morning low Monday, Feb. 2 was just 23 degrees, the coldest reading for that day in 113 years and 31 degrees cooler than average.
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Tallahassee bottomed out at 18 degrees on Monday, beating its record of 19 degrees set in 1951.
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Jacksonville hit a low Tuesday morning of 26 degrees. That tied its record of 8 consecutive days with temperatures 32 degrees or lower.
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The Treasure Coast and Space Coast also hit three consecutive days of daily cold records with Vero Beach dipping to 31 degrees and Melbourne reaching a low of 29 degrees on Tuesday.
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Sunday’s low of 30 degrees in West Palm Beach was the coldest temperature measured there since Dec. 25, 1989. Then it happened again Monday, breaking the previous record of 37 degrees set in 1912.
“That’s the kind of cold… I don’t want to say it’s a once in a generation type of thing, but it’s getting up there,” said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Adam Doute.
Will Florida get some much-needed rain with the cold front?
Doute said this week’s cold front will also come with some rain for Florida including the chance for thunderstorms in the western Panhandle on Wednesday.
A new drought report will be issued Thursday, Feb. 5, but as of Jan. 27, 94% of the state was in moderate to extreme drought, with the driest areas in the Panhandle and Big Bend region.
More: Dozens of cold records broken as snow flies and crops freeze in Florida
Overnight low temperatures behind the front will be in the 20s and 30s from Pensacola to Orlando and in the Treasure Coast on Friday. Temps in the 40s are forecast for areas from north of Lake Okeechobee to Miami.
The forecast of 45 degrees for Miami is 17 degrees cooler than normal.
Jill Federico, manager of the Lake Worth Beach Tee Shirt Co., said she had customers on Sunday from Montana who said it was warmer in there than in South Florida.
“This doesn’t happen very often so we can deal with it for a couple days,” Federico said about the cool weather. “But, yeah, it shouldn’t be warmer in Montana than it is here. That should never happen.”
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 https://palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Second cold front heading to Florida after record-breaking chill
