Florida Can't Handle the Cold Weather UPDATED

We are wimps. After all that whining about the hottest year on record, cold weather arrived this morning and everybody went crazy. Iguanas will fall out of trees, the Miami Herald predicted. Plants will die. Tourists will head elsewhere. Well, there is something to this. Yesterday, cold rain turned to snow...

By Chuck Strouse

January 4, 2018

Yesterday on the beach was cold. Today will be even colder. Photo by Kristin Bjornsen

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We are wimps. After all that whining about the hottest year on record, cold weather arrived this morning and everybody went crazy. Iguanas will fall from trees, the Miami Herald predicted. Plants will die. Tourists will head elsewhere.

Well, there is something to this. Yesterday cold rain turned to snow in Tallahassee, closing part of Interstate 10 near Thomasville Road for several hours. It was the first significant accumulation of frozen precipitation since 1989. Florida State University and Florida A&M both shut down because of the weather.

Alachua County schools around Gainesville closed yesterday and today but pledged to reopen Friday, when civil weather is predicted to return.
And dozens of beds were added in homeless shelters last night. Police helped some homeless to the county shelter downtown.

A post shared by Brennan Juhan (@brennansgrin) on Jan 3, 2018 at 6:45am PST

The weather is admittedly strange. In Fort Lauderdale, it was 41 degrees, the coldest in three years. If it doesn't reach 60, it will be the first time since 2014. In Miami, it was the coldest in two years.

And around 11 a.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service issued a frost warning for western Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties.

Tonight in Miami is expected to drop to only 50, though, and by Monday a warm front will bring a bit of rain and highs in the mid-70s.

So relax already.

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Chuck Strouse is the former editor in chief of Miami New Times. He has shared two Pulitzer Prizes and won dozens of other awards. He is an honors graduate of Brown University and has worked at newspapers including the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times.

Contact: Chuck Strouse

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Twitter: @chuckstrouse