florida 2025-2026 Florida Winter

[flplantguy]

We have had enough nasty gusts here it's tearing through the yard pretty bad. The windbreak has not grown in at all yet and my attempts at creating a windbreak are not going well with these gusts. Covers won't do much but it's what I have, I don't plug in anything electric to protect them.  It sounds like a tropical storm outside as I take a break from my attempts to save damage.  Next is cover what left and hope it does ok. Nothing is getting replanted until the windbreak grows in if it's not capable of handling 40mph gusts and freezes in the open yard now.

[CodyORB]

Snow flurries coming down in Tallahassee, I’m told. On my way back from Orlando, which has been giving much grayer, duller vibes than I’m used to. Hang in there, everyone!

The wind is gonna do a number.

[JLM]

Had a high of 35F today, wind chills remained in the low to mid 20s all day as winds have been gusting in the 35-45 mph range. As of 4:45 PM CST, the temperature is already just barely below freezing at 31.5F. Hoping for a very very gradual drop through the night. Current forecast is 20F. Hopefully the cold air advection isnt as strong as anticipated.

Stay warm out there tonight, and hopefully everyone's palms will make it out alive.

[Matthew92]

32 deg at 4:45pm here 🥶 winds still HOWLING. I used a small hunting tent to put over my Philodendron selloum so I don’t lose the stem. It’s blown off more than once during the day- finally rigged up something that is holding. How windy is it in central FL at this time for you all?

I have to tell myself that things will survive since my yard already endured this in the Christmas 2022 freeze (that one maybe being a little worse). That one had the terrible winds along with hard freezing temps like this one. Somehow most of my Chamaeodorea microspadix didn’t lose their stems in that one but they did lose most of their fronds. I protected the base of them since I don’t have time/resources to cover each clump which are 4+ feet tall. So in the worst case it can resprout from the offshoots.

[Sabal_Louisiana]

3 hours ago, MarkC said:

Why does everything east of the Rockies typically trend colder? Why do the initial extremely cold  forecasts always back down from extent of the cold only to go back down in temps forecasting as the events unfold? Don’t the forecasters build this into their forecasting? 

why does it gets much colder east of the Rockies during the Winter?
The Rockies are the problem. The act as a high and effective barrier that prevents milder Pacific air from spreading east. Their presence helps to amplify the troughs associated with Canadian cold air masses, which can spread south like water on a flat table, all the way down to the Gulf. Ever notice how they always pour down from the same area into the US? Florida, at least, is surrounded by warm water, which usually acts as a modifier to continental air masses.

I suspect that the models that forecasters use tend to underplay the efficiency of dense, shallow cold air movement at the surface. These same models also sometimes underestimate radiational cooling that occurs when the cold settles in before modifying and moving out.

NWS forecasters sometimes, I think, seem to go with a more conservative approach in forecasting. They might forecast temperatures that are a bit colder than what materialIzes, as a precaution.

 

[JLM]

Heres the NWS forecast for the state of FL by region:

Northwestern Florida:



Central & Eastern Panhandle:



Northeastern Florida:



East Central Florida:



West Central Florida:



Southern Florida:

[Matthew92]

Chamaedorea microspadix with bases protected. I know it looks kind of thrown together but I put pinestraw thickly at the base and then towels and blankets on top. Seems to have worked the last couple years we had teens. The plants under the buckets are Cordyline australis ‘red star.’
 
 

Hunting tent over my Philodendron selloum. I wrapped the bud/base with a heavy moving blanket underneath that. By some miracle the trunk survived 15deg and almost 6inches of snow last January with just two heavy moving blankets wrapped tightly around the bud/trunk. 

[JJPalmer]

HRRR (18z) seems to show a ‘worst case’ scenario with model runs materially cooler than the NWS prediction for both tomorrow and Monday AM. As always, go with the professionals, but will be interesting to see how certain models perform. Good luck, everyone. 

[Aceraceae]

Port St. Lucie is odd for the east coast of Florida because it's an inland suburban city, and not on the coast. 

And the nearest airport weather station at Treasure Coast airport is also inland, north of Fort Pierce. 
Coastal St. Lucie County Jensen Beach area won't be mid 20s. 
 

[Merlyn]

4 hours ago, JDawgs said:

I live in St. Augustine. Unfortunately I have a royal palm that I think is gonna die. I protected my king palm as well as I could. Also saturated the ground. The pygmy dates are likely to take a lot of damage. Says it’s getting down to 23, but hopefully it won’t. 

Unless the Royal is really small, they seem to be pretty tough.  There are a bunch around the Sanford area that survived many years of frosts in the upper 20s and at least one ~25F and all survived.  The only thing that finally killed a big batch of them was a chainsaw during construction of a new business complex...  I've seen some completely defoliated and grow right back literally a couple of weeks later.

It is already sub-40 here with not too high winds but occasional huge gusts.  I went around today and took about 210 photos of the yard and all the plants.  Most things I did not attempt to cover, being either too big to try, or already known to be really tough, or already burnt to a crisp from previous 27-30F frosts this winter.  I did put boxes over 2 small Coryphas, my grown-from-seed Arenga Westerhoutii, a couple of small Arenga Hookeriana, and a couple of Philodendron "Evansii".  I moved my small nursery area into the garage on top of a single folding table.  I just remembered that I was going to cover a small Attalea Butyracea and Phalerata though...time to get out there before having dinner!

Darwin's gonna sort it all out, right @kinzyjr?

[kinzyjr]

19 minutes ago, Merlyn said:

Darwin's gonna sort it all out, right @kinzyjr?

Unfortunately, that sums it up.  Everyone has a thread they hope they never have to update again.  For me, it's this one.

I think @SubTropicRay is sticking with the drought thread, though.  😊

[FlaPalmLover]

Drove by today and it looked like the coconut 2-3 miles from me was already pretty burnt. It may be lucky to make it through the next couple of nights. Didn't look like the owners were planning to do anything to try to protect it from even further damage, either. But who knows... maybe it will bounce back by summertime. 

[Matthew92]

Looks like the freezing line is just north of Ocala at this point. 

[HudsonBill]

4 minutes ago, Matthew92 said:

Looks like the freezing line is just north of Ocala at this point. 

That 100 on there looks good right about now lol. 

[JeskiM]

It could be way worse, at least ypu don't have 215 mph winds like this one station is recording.   

-Matt

[JJPalmer]

2 hours ago, Aceraceae said:

Port St. Lucie is odd for the east coast of Florida because it's an inland suburban city, and not on the coast. 

And the nearest airport weather station at Treasure Coast airport is also inland, north of Fort Pierce. 
Coastal St. Lucie County Jensen Beach area won't be mid 20s. 
 

100%. If you zoom in, the HRRR is showing ~31-32° on the barrier islands. Whatever algorithm that pics up the city temps tends to be +/- 2° from what I can tell. 

[Merlyn]

1 hour ago, kinzyjr said:

Unfortunately, that sums it up.  Everyone has a thread they hope they never have to update again.  For me, it's this one.

I think @SubTropicRay is sticking with the drought thread, though.  😊

I did have one encouraging thought...generally my house is 2 to 5F colder than the airport.  But that's only on still nights.  On previous windy cold fronts my house was pretty close to the airport, i.e. within 1 or 2 degrees.  So I was assuming 25 at the airport = 20-23F here.  But with the wind maybe that really means I'll end up near 25.  Almost everything here already survived that with frost, so hopefully it'll all survive 25ish with wind!  I suppose I'll find out in a few hours...

[Aceraceae]

34 minutes ago, JeskiM said:

It could be way worse, at least ypu don't have 215 mph winds like this one station is recording.   

-Matt

it's Hurricane Patricia

[HudsonBill]

So If this is a once in a decade cold does that mean we should all plant coconuts in march and enjoy them for 10 to 15 year? Lol

[ahosey01]

1 minute ago, HudsonBill said:

So If this is a once in a decade cold does that mean we should all plant coconuts in march and enjoy them for 10 to 15 year? Lol

This is how we garden in South Texas.

 

lol

[Aceraceae]

9 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

This is how we garden in South Texas.

 

lol

does south padre have coconut trees and royal palms back after five years? 

[ahosey01]

46 minutes ago, Aceraceae said:

does south padre have coconut trees and royal palms back after five years? 

Still has royals and coconuts, even after 21.

[HudsonBill]

22 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

Still has royals and coconuts, even after 21.

Coconuts that survived? 

[ahosey01]

10 minutes ago, HudsonBill said:

Coconuts that survived? 

Yep I have a few photos I'll try and dig around and fine them.  Not a ton but three that I know of.

[HudsonBill]

5 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

Yep I have a few photos I'll try and dig around and fine them.  Not a ton but three that I know of.

Nice! I swear they can come back from lower temps than people say. 

[pj_orlando_z9b]

It is 34F near MCO at 11:30. The local news hour by hour yesterday had Orlando at freezing by 10 PM. Probably doesn't mean much in the big pucture,. The winds were brutal, felt like a tropical storm. Tore up my coconut PVC frame so no supplemental heat tonight. Still wrapped well with C9 lights and heating cable. 42F on the wireless thermometer, 8F warmer than air temp. Crown will be lost with a hard freeze. 

[JJPalmer]

Approximate extent of the 32° isotherm at 11:45 ET - of course YMMV and small microclimates may differ.

[HudsonBill]

Temp stopped falling here at 11 actualy came back up and is holding at 35 now. Nw pasco county those onshore winds help so much. It's been much colder than this at this time of night many times this year. 

[edbrown_III]

Hope fer the best ---I covered what I could and hauled some many plantz in the greenhouse ---and got several heaters cooking ---- left alot out in the yard as they were too much to b ring in 

I got a liquid filled heater by my Jubaeopsis and Triangle --- to big to cover ---

salute 

[Jimbean]

As of 12:30AM

[miamicuse]

super windy at Fort Lauderdale starting at 6pm.  I had to redo some of the tarps because the wind flipped them.  Some upside down pots got blown over too I added bricks on top.

[Palmarum]

As of Sunday, 2:30AM...

South Broward, brrr

The wind is atrocious. Ten to twenty mph steady with gusts banging stuff around outside, whistling through, pushing on the windows. I heard something fall not sure what it was. Went outside for a quick run and everything is still covered as far as I can tell. 

Northside, in wind, front of house: 37ºF (2.7ºC)

Southside on patio, covered, out of wind: 45ºF (7ºC)

Garage, heated: 62ºF (16ºC) - The north facing metal garage door is a bit cold to the touch.

Some empty pots found themselves loose and rolling around, small branches are down, windchimes going nonstop...

Ryan

[Looking Glass]

Windy but not as much as earlier, 38F here at 4am here….   Low is supposed to be somewhere between 35 and 32 at 7am, then slowly warming to 50F by 4pm, then another drop off to around 35 tonight.  A couple of degrees here will make all the difference.  

Predictions seem to be moderating by a degree or two since late last night.  

Either way, it’s nipply out.   I have instituted emergency bedroom sleeping precautions.  

[Jimbean]

27F at my house right now.  Was forecast to get to 26F, still another hour and a half to go

[D. Morrowii]

I’ve got one sensor out in the open showing 24.6 here in Merritt Island the others are around 25-26. Brutal night here. 

[HudsonBill]

27.5 was my ultimate low here in northwest pasco. Didn't drop below freezing till right after 330am 

[Jimbean]

25.4F low for my location.  Worse than 2010.  Hopefully everything pulls through.

 

The three biggest losers in relative terms:

1.) Florida Keys

2.) Brevard county

3.) Palm Beach county

 

The biggest winners (if you can call it that) in relative terms:

1.) The entire west coast within about ten miles from the gulf, from Citrus county southward

2.) North eastern Florida didn't get hit all that bad in relative terms, many locations on par or not much colder than with Orlando

3.) The panhandle, again, in relative terms. 

[SeanK]

This bottomed out at 24°F. Station has trouble synchronizing

[JDawgs]

It hit 24 here in St. Augustine. Looks like it was in the 20s as far south as Palm Beach County. I’m praying that everything damaged recovers. 

[malibu31]

On 1/26/2026 at 2:53 PM, aabell said:

I'm worried about next week too, but what exactly are you attempting to grow in Naples that's been hurt or killed by recent cold snaps? I've been in SWFL for over 7 years and only been below 35F in my yard maybe once. I've never lost a palm to cold, including a lot of 10B-11 stuff sitting out unprotected and in pots. Maybe the luck runs out this winter but I don't feel like we have a lot to complain about compared to the rest of the country. Just like anywhere in Florida your distance to water is almost as important as your latitude. 

Anyways, nights in the 40s here and there in the past have never been a problem as long as we warm back up. Which is what I was already worried about with this extended stretch. On top of that, as of today the models are for the first time hinting at a real freeze this weekend. Making some preparations today to bring orchids and seedlings inside for the duration.

And yes if nothing else we're about to see Adonidiageddon up and down the peninsula. 

I know this post was almost a week ago, but looking at the maps, Naples looks like the place to be this morning