By: Summer Livengood

Florida’s weather has been hot and humid for years. Usually in Florida from March to late December, it is in the high 80’s and 90’s. In recent times, however, there has been a cold front running through Florida dropping us to the low 80’s and high 70’s, making temperatures cooler than usual. The weather in 2020 during October was at a high of 104 degrees, this year’s October has had average temperatures of 82 degrees. There are large and small cold fronts running through. On October 19, 2021, the temperature dropped to 78 at night and has risen to 82 degrees at night. On October 19, 2020, it was a high 80 and low 90 all day. Global temperatures have been rising, but these cold fronts have been coming faster.

A cold front is when cold weather rushes into warm weather. When Tennessee cold weather pushes through and reaches the warm weather like Florida, a cold front causes a cloud of cold air.  In 1981, it dropped to 41 degrees fahrenheit. In these times, it went from 72 degrees in the morning, and at night, it slowly dropped to a low 41 degrees. In this change, over 1,000 fish died from the dramatic temperature change. Schools were canceled since it started to snow for a couple moments. Even though it only snowed for a moment, school was out due to the cold weather.

The cold front hit late night on October 19th, 2021, moving from upper Florida to lower Florida, and slowly making its way towards the Caribbean sea. The cold front is slowly dying down but is still heading towards the upper United States. 

Last year, there was a large cold front that dropped us to the low 60s at night. It made it cold so fast that iguanas would go into shock and fall out of trees, and sometimes the shock would hit so fast that they would be climbing and freeze up and fall. Some would die from hitting concrete, but most just stayed in shock until they warmed up. The cold fronts have been coming so early that the iguanas have been burrowing earlier than usual. Iguanas usually don’t burrow in the Florida Keys until the end of December. Because of the early burrowing, this means their mating season will come earlier. 

Because we are already starting to get cold fronts, forecasters and meteorologists are saying that by December we will already be in the low 70’s. Other countries are being affected by these cold fronts, as well. In Tennessee, it has been in the low 40’s regularly, and countries all over the world have been experiencing dropping temperature levels. Forecasters believe that this year will be one of Florida’s coldest years. In the next few weeks, we should be getting larger cold fronts and tons of wind, making it colder than it seems. The next predicted low temperature is somewhere in the low 70’s at night and high 70’s during the day. 

Forecasters say that we should start preparing for harsh weather and changes in climate, as some days will be colder than others, and that you should also be pulling out cold weather items like long sleeves, pants, and even jackets. Wind breakers are also a good idea due to the strong winds coming with the cold front. 

Image from The Weather Channel