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A pretty brutal period of cold for Jacksonville/NE Fl./SE Ga. will culminate with a relatively rare few days of intense cold Sat./Sun./Mon., Jan. 31-Feb. 2. The arctic front moves across the local area Friday night with the coldest air arriving Saturday afternoon & continuing through early Tue. with a widespread hard freeze 3 nights in a row - Sat. night/Sun. night/Mon. night. The cumulative effect will be notable on any exposed pipes &, of course, on plants & pets. People will need to bundle up for what may be some of the coldest weather in quite some time. Depending on where exact temps. end up, the 3 days could be some of the coldest back to back to back days in Jacksonville this century.
The map below is the First Alert Forecast (as of Wed., Jan. 28) for early morning temps. Sunday, Feb. 1 (wind chills in the the single digits & low teens). 21 degrees F in Jacksonville would break the daily record for the date of 24 set in the infamous arctic outbreak of 1977 & is more than 20 degrees below the average low for the date of 44 degrees F.
Aiding the plunging temps. is an expansive snowpack from the Southern Plain to New England. Such a wide area of snow cover acts like a big refrigerator as north winds blowing across the snow limit temps. from modifying as much as they might otherwise before arriving in NE Fl./SE Ga.
JEA recommends the following for helping reduce your utility bills during cold snaps:
• Set your thermostat to 68°F or lower and only adjust 1-2 degrees at a time to avoid activating heat strips which are costly to run.
• Seal drafts around windows and doors to keep cold air out.
• Use space heaters safely and only in rooms that are occupied
• Track your daily usage at jea.com
The freeze will extend far to the south across the Florida peninsula likely impacting citrus crops. Intense freezes in the late 1800’s literally shifted the landscape of the orange growing industry in Florida. Up until the 1890s, orange orchards were plentiful & thriving in Northeast Florida & present day Jacksonville only to be essentially wiped out by back to back severe freezes in 1894 & 1895. Weather warnings were not as accurate or near as easy to communicate/disseminate & farmers were caught off guard. In fact, the method used was for trains to sound their whistle 6 times every 3 miles while moving south from Jacksonville then farmers would know they needed to try to create smoke (from smudge pots or large bonfires) in an attempt to insulate the trees. More from the Florida Division of Historical Resources * here *. Orange County regional history center pics below:
Despite the cold... pine pollen is popping. January has had enough warm spells (Jan. #’s so far in the 3rd image below) - Jacksonville has had 3 80+ degree days - to help the cedar pollen to peak already & the pine pollen to recently spike. The cold will stagnate or even lower the pollen numbers in the short term but pine pollen is too far along to go down significantly. Oak pollen on the other hand will wait out the current cold. But once we see sustained warming, the pollen will surely explode - get ready!
Action News Jax - thanks to the Jacksonville Sinus & Nasal Institute - has the only daily pollen sensor - click * here * to see the daily data - in Duval or any of NE Florida/SE Ga. The slide below shows the pine pollen spores at 3pm Mon., Jan. 26 followed by the graph indicating a peak in the afternoon following 80+ degree temps. the before on Sunday:
We’ve passed a “special” threshold when it comes to Jacksonville sunset times - 6:00pm! Our sunsets will remain later than 6pm through early Nov. (“spring forward” 1 hour Sunday, March 8 when sunset will be 7:30pm):
