Record Cold Across Florida This Weekend

Another arctic blast of cold air will plunge through the East, including Florida, which could have its coldest stretch in at least 15 years, and will prolong one of the longest subfreezing stretches in several years in parts of the Northeast.

This latest cold front will surge southward on the backside of Winter Storm Gianna as it hammers parts of the East with snow, winds and coastal flooding.

(CURRENT MAPS: Temperatures | Wind Chills)

Florida’s Not A Winter Escape

Our apologies go out to both residents and “snowbirds” flocking to the Sunshine State to escape winter cold and snow elsewhere.

This won’t be a winter escape for the next several days.

The cold front will sweep through the state Saturday, turning sharply windy and colder by Saturday night and Sunday morning. We’re talking really cold. This air is coming from the Canadian Arctic, about 4,000 miles away from South Florida.

Numerous daily record-cold lows and daytime highs are expected statewide Sunday into Monday. Among the “high”lights:

– Lows Sunday and Monday morning in the mid-20s as far south as Vero Beach will likely lead to a damaging hard freeze. The last time Orlando was 25 degrees or colder was Dec. 29, 2010. This will be a long-duration hard freeze for the citrus and berry crops across the Interstate 4 corridor.

– Lows in much of South Florida will also plunge into the low to mid-30s Sunday and Monday morning. Miami International Airport last recorded a low of 35 degrees or colder on Jan. 10, 2010.

– With stiff northwest winds coming off the Florida Peninsula, wind chills Sunday may be as low as the single digits and teens in northern and parts of central Florida, and 20s in South Florida.

– Forecast highs, if you want to call them that, will hold in the 40s Sunday generally along and north of Interstate 4, including Orlando, Tampa and Daytona Beach. South Florida’s highs on Sunday may only make it into the low-mid 50s.

– If you’re planning to invade Tampa for Gasparilla this weekend, you might want to remain a landlubber rather than join the boat parade. Tampa Bay waters are going to be very rough and winds could also top 45 mph. There’s only so much battening down the hatches you can do before the weather makes it too rough for even the heartiest krewe.

– If that wasn’t enough, we can’t completely rule out a few snow flurries Saturday night or early Sunday morning along either the western Florida Gulf Coast or Atlantic beaches of northeast Florida. They’ll likely melt immediately after hitting the ground, but might be a curious sight nonetheless. According to the National Weather Service, the last time this happened in western Florida near Tampa-St. Petersburg was Jan. 9, 2010.

Southeast Record Cold, Too

If Florida shivers, it means the rest of the Southeast will, too.

Aided by fresh snow cover provided by Winter Storm Gianna and the frigid, polar air pulled south behind it, some record lows and record cold highs are possible in the Southeast through Tuesday.

Lows in the teens or 20s will blanket much of the Deep South, even to the Southeast and Gulf coasts, including Charleston, South Carolina, and New Orleans.

(MAPS: 10-Day US Forecast Highs/Lows)

Cold Streaks

We also expect some daily record lows and cold highs in parts of the Ohio Valley into the weekend, with some areas plunging into the single digits above or below zero, as the map below shows.

In parts of the Northeast, it’s not only how cold it’s been, but how long it’s lasted.

New York City’s Central Park dipped below freezing last Friday, and may remain there through Monday or Tuesday. This 10- or 11-day subfreezing streak would be their longest in eight years, since late December 2017 through early January 2018, according to NOAA’s database. The Big Apple’s record is 16 straight days in 1961.

It’s even more unusual in the Nation’s Capital.

Washington, D.C., may finally rise above freezing on Monday. That nine-day subfreezing streak since last Saturday would be only the fifth such streak or longer dating to 1872, and their longest since mid- to late December 1989. Washington’s all-time record-long streak below freezing is 12 straight days from late January through early February 1936.

It could be the coldest last week of January in at least 63 years in State College, Pennsylvania, according to the National Weather Service.

Based on the forecast through Sunday, this may be among the top 5 or 10 coldest Jan. 19-Feb. 1 two-week periods on record for dozens of cities in the Midwest, Northeast and South, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

Any Relief?

The short answer: not much.

Temperatures will slowly recover for a day or two after Groundhog Day.

But our forecast guidance suggests continued plunges of cold air from Canada into the East through the second week of February.

Meanwhile, much of the Plains and West is expected to be warmer than average.

So if you need a true winter escape, you may want to head West instead.

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.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.