Florida Freeze of 1962

[Bill H2DB]

  Having experienced this atrocity , and still scarred by it , as well as the '83 , '85 events , I am compelled to post these links .

  Ah... the Good Old Days ......

 

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/weather/2020/12/11/the-day-tampa-froze-over

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1962/12/14/archives/florida-freeze-worst-since-1889-killing-blow-to-fruit-and-vegetable.html

 

https://www.weather.gov/media/tbw/paig/PresAmFreeze1962.pdf

 

https://citrusindustry.net/2020/11/10/get-florida-freeze-updates-with-winter-weather-watch/

Yeah , right..............

[bubba]

1962 was an event experienced more on the western portion of Florida. Still amazing to consider the parallel of the 1890s and the 1980s as it relates to Florida. Thank you for the interesting articles!

[Bill H2DB]

The '62 Freeze went well into the peninsula of Florida .

The citrus groves , produce fields ,  etc well down state were devastated . 

 

Here in Volusia County , on the East coast , agriculture , and ornamentals as well were totally fried . 

   As a youngster , I made a good bit of money helping to cut dead plants and haul them off . The smell of rotting vegetation permeated the air .

Dead fish floated in the River ( ICW ) . 

   The only known Royal Palm in Daytona died , even though the city's Fire department placed a shroud over it . ( a friend of mine lived in the building where the palm 

was located  ) . This was a Windy freeze ,so the cold penetrated everywhere .

   Grove , and Fernery etc  owners here used Smudge pots , and burned pile of old tires as well , so the air was filled with the smoke and fumes from all of that .

That began the demise of Citrus in Volusia , although some few did continue , until 1983 and 1985 . Today we do have a few small groves , but nothing 

of any real size .

[kinzyjr]

10 hours ago, Bill H2DB said:

  Having experienced this atrocity , and still scarred by it , as well as the '83 , '85 events , I am compelled to post these links .

  Ah... the Good Old Days ......

The topic of historic impact freezes came up at the fall CPFACS meeting.  Most of the folks on the east coast say the 1989 Christmas Freeze was their worst.  The folks from here to Tampa were split between Dec. 1962 and Jan. 1985.  Just going by historical records for my location, it appears that 1985 edges out 1962 if only because there were two lows of 20F instead of one.

All of the station data for this impact can be viewed on this map by deselecting the default map and then checking the box next to Dec. 1962:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=18H1cufNcjuFbcjZEkhaOPAxwazmWVGc&ll=26.01372083382606%2C-80.37360165984235&z=8

The cold wave was so strong, even Dry Tortugas stayed below 60F all day on 12/14/1962!