Brace for the Chill: Unprecedented Temperature Drop Hits Central Florida Tonight

When I mention that temperatures took a nosedive throughout Monday, rest assured this is no exaggeration.

To illustrate, as I arrived for our afternoon broadcasts earlier that day in Orlando, temperatures were lingering comfortably in the upper 60s. Across Central Florida, many residents were enjoying a mild day in the 60s, despite the breezy conditions outside.

However, that pleasant situation changed swiftly and dramatically!

A cold front, a dense mass of polar air, surged through the region from west to east, propelled by the strong winds that intensified over the day. These gusty conditions are expected to persist into the early hours of Tuesday, particularly as we step outside to commence our Veterans Day celebrations.

If the current forecast holds, we may witness record-breaking lows for this early November. Remarkably, this chill comes well before the official start of winter, suggesting that Jack Frost has decided to make an early visit.

The coldest Veterans Day low temperature recorded in Orlando was set back in 1932, coming in at a chilling 39 degrees Fahrenheit. Our coolest high temp on the 11th was back in 1913, when Orlando topped at around 61 degrees towards the “warmest” part of the day.

Note the quotes, warmest being relative, especially for a Floridians standard.

Currently, Orlando is forecast to drop to 37 degrees at the coolest part of the morning, which tends to occur between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. Then – get this – our forecasted high temperature during Veterans Day afternoon is slated to peak anywhere from 57-59 degrees, which would indeed break our record.

Both of these values would replace the current records for coldest Veterans Day low and “warmest” (there go the quotes again) high temperature.

When we wake up tomorrow, the air will have cooled to a whole 35-38 degrees throughout much of our neck of the woods in Central Florida. Winds will still be pretty turned up, gusting between 15-25 miles per hour generally from Alachua County down southeast into southern Brevard and Osceola counties.

You put these two variables together, and what it’ll feel like to us is WELL below freezing. Some of the feels-like temps for Gainesville, Ocala, The Villages, and areas further northwest you go bottom out at about 23-25 degrees.

So while the air temps don’t look all that impressive, especially when compared to previous cold bouts we’ve witnessed during the true core of the winter season – the wind chill factor is what’s going to matter most to us and those who don’t have the luxury of staying warm throughout the night.

We also can’t forget the pets and animals out there who have to endure the cold alongside us.

Thankfully, this will quite literally only last about a day before the trough responsible for dumping such frigid conditions on us gets bullied off to the northeast and replaced with an amplifying ridge. That ridge expected to build in will take us right back into the 80s by our weekend.

Then it appears we may stay fairly tame in the temperature department towards Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Some could say it may even feel a little warm, given the time of year. Climate Prediction Center has us tagged for above-average temps the further we get into November.

I also want to point out we’ll need to keep our eyes on our greenery around the house. Rains seem to continue to taper deeper into the month, and the next thirty days could be below average in terms of total rainfall for the state.

This could resurrect the drought as we do get into December and the calendar start of winter. Fire hazards will also be on the rise if this trend keeps up.