I Know You Folks up North Are Laughing But it Is

headline news here!!!

Near-record cold to hit S. Florida

By Stephanie Horvath & Joel Marino of Sun-Sentinel.com

& the Associated Press

12:31 PM EST, January 2, 2008

A sudden drop in temperature may have forced joggers along Fort Lauderdale beach to bundle up Wednesday morning, but it couldn't keep some snowbirds from enjoying the Florida sand.

"This is a heat wave for us," said Lenny Laire, an Iowa resident strolling the beach in shorts. "For people down here it's probably pretty chilly, but we haven't seen over 20 degrees in two months."

Locals not used to the chill, though, may consider pulling out wool socks and flannel shirts.

Starting Wednesday night, South Florida will shiver through temperatures dipping close to freezing. The wintry blast might even break a few records and bring snow flurries as far south as Brevard County.

The National Weather Service in Miami has issued a freeze warning for the interior portions of the state. Freezing temperatures are expected through 9 a.m. Thursday west of U.S. 441 in Palm Beach County and west of the Sawgrass Expressway in Broward County.

"It's certainly not typical for this time of year," National Weather Service Meteorologist Dan Dixon said. "It's not normally what we expect in South Florida."

Record lows could hit Fort Lauderdale Wednesday night, Dixon said. The forecast calls for 38 degrees, which would shatter the 29-year-old record of 39 degrees.

Dixon said farmers should take precautions to safeguard their crops and people may want to bring their pets indoors.

Andre Deoliveira, owner of the Plant Warehouse nursery in Davie, suggested plant owners water their plants thoroughly overnight to keep their roots from drying out.

"The most sensitive plants should be moved inside, but flowers planted in the ground should be watered by lunchtime so they stay wet and the sun can warm their roots," Deoliveira said.

In Central Florida, temperatures are expected to drop into the teens and low 20s.

"There will be clouds that are similar to the clouds that are generated in the Great Lakes states when we have lake-effect snow," Orlando's Local 6 meteorologist Larry Mowry said. "I'm going to call for the possibility of snow flurries early Thursday morning near the coastline."

Mowry said residents in Daytona Beach, Titusville, Palm Bay and Melbourne may see the snow flurries Thursday.

Much of the state's prime citrus growing areas were expected to get temperatures in the 20s, so Gov. Charlie Crist signed an emergency order and relaxed restrictions in getting harvests moved to processing centers.

``Everybody's scurrying around to do what they can to protect their plants,'' said Terry McElroy, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Citrus grower Ben Norris said he was monitoring weather reports to decide if they need to run water over the fruit, which forms an insulating layer of ice on the peel. If temperatures drop to 28 degrees for four hours or more, ice can form inside the fruit, likely damaging it, he said.

``I don't feel like this is going to be catastrophic,'' said Norris, who oversees about 300,000 boxes of fruit a year in DeSoto and Hardee counties.

Vegetables could face the biggest threat if the freezing weather moves into Palm Beach County and other areas of South Florida where those crops are grown. Farmers are trying to harvest as much of their crops as they can or cover them before tonight to minimize the damage.

In Plant City near Tampa, strawberry grower Carl Grooms spent Wednesday morning searching for ripe berries to pluck before they could be damaged. With strong wind and temperatures forecast in the mid-20s, Grooms feared considerable loss.

He and other growers, ranging from strawberries to ferns, use the same technique each time this happens: icing plants by spraying them with water to insulate them at 32 degrees.

Parts of northern Florida experienced below freezing temperatures early Wednesday. Weather service meteorologist Andy Tingler said the Panhandle felt 30 degree temperatures as of early Wednesday morning; Jacksonville was at 32 degrees.

The weather service predicts the coldest temperatures Wednesday night and Thursday morning, with lows dipping into the mid-30s in Palm Beach County and the upper-30s in Broward County. But wind could make it feel as cold as 24 degrees.

Santos said West Palm Beach's record low for Jan. 3 is 31 degrees, set in 1898. The city's temperature is forecast to drop to 34 on Thursday.

Just before 6 a.m. Wednesday, temperatures were 54 in Miami, 52 in Fort Lauderdale and 49 in West Palm Beach.

Both a hard freeze and frost are possible, and a biting wind could make it feel like it's below freezing.

The weather lingo boils down to this: Take in your plants and turn up your thermostat.

The weather service predicted we'd start feeling the chillier weather Wednesday with highs only reaching the upper 50s and wind chills as low as 37 degrees.

"People will notice a difference. We're looking for highs that struggle to hit the 60-degree mark," Santos said.

Vegetable farmers have prepped helicopters to fly above their fields and keep frost from forming on their crops. Nursery owners are covering up tender plants. Fort Lauderdale officials were already preparing for hundreds of homeless to flood shelters to escape the cold.

"We are just trying to get people off the street so they don't add to the taxpayers' costs by getting sick with pneumonia and going to the hospital," said Jamie Costas, who oversees the Fort Lauderdale Police Department's Homeless Outreach Unit. "A lot of people say, 'I'll be OK.' Then they realize that it really is going to be cold. The majority of them don't have access to the Internet and television."

A dispatcher at the Palm Beach County Emergency Management Office said it would not know until Wednesday morning whether it would open its cold shelters. The county usually activates the shelters when the temperature drops below 40. Folks who want to go to a Palm Beach County shelter should call 211.

The cold weather is expected to blow out of town by Thursday evening, with lows rising to the mid-50s in Palm Beach and Broward counties. By Friday morning, the highs will be in the lower 70s.