florida 2025-2026 Florida Winter

February 1

Hit freezing just after 4 am, bottomed out at 28.9 like the last front but wayyy windier. Damage is already apparent in the back on some things where the wind is usually lessened. Front yard has already taken that temp and covers are ok except the front spindle bed. My makeshift windbreak may have been partially helpful but I won't know for a bit. Today I'll fix things before nightfall when the winds die and I expect a huge drop. Our event here has just started, the radiational freezes the next two nights will be our next test. I don't buy the 30 and 34 forecast, it will be as much as 6 degrees colder if previous events are to be factored in. I bought the forecast last year and was 26.6 instead of 34, and the damage was considerable where I had the covers off. Not falling for that again. They stay/go back on until Tuesday at lunch.

February 1

17 minutes ago, malibu31 said:

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

👍 It's a balmy 36 degrees in my backyard in Fort Myers this morning. You won't catch me complaining!

February 1

@Looking Glass I too have emergency bedroom sleeping precautions! It got down to 57.6 degrees in there last night, even with a little 750W space heater. BRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

My yard bottomed out at 22.6F with moderate winds. There's some big oaks still at the neighbors on the W and NW sides, so that cuts down on wind speed a lot. However, that means the front yard and back yard measure basically identical. In still nights the backyard is always a few degrees colder. No hint of frost! It's currently up to 25-26F with the sun starting to hit a few plants. This was a few minutes ago. It's not quite in focus because I was shivering!

Edit: The local airport station is only 0.4 degrees different than me:

February 1

Hit 19.8F which will round to 20F. Could have been much worse. Queens likely defoliated regardless though.

I believe this is the big one of the season. The Panhandle will continue to be at risk for freezing temperatures, and this is definitely not the last freeze, but I think it's probably the worst one.

Hoping for a speedy recovery for everything that's been damaged down south this morning.

February 1

Round 2 Tonight, Round 3 tomorrow night. More of a radiational event now with widespread frost. Should clean up anything that made it through last night. I ordered a chain saw today and know what I will be doing for the better part of 2026. :crying: After that, a zone 8 yard for me!

Historic event and will change the face of Central and areas of South Florida for many years to come. I am happy for those on the forum that will escape the worst of this catastrophe and I feel the pain of those who did not.

February 1

A very tight temperature range this morning - 23.5F-24F. The lowest hourly at the airport was 24.8F. Being further west helped in this one. It's not looking good for survival on a lot of stuff due to the low temperature.

February 1

20.7 is my extreme low. The duration was the worst part. I think 16 hours below freezing is a good guess for here. It’s still 25 at 8:12am.

February 1

24.5 in the open. My attempt at a windbreak with tarps was destroyed, but the area I lined with c9 and heat lamps bottomed out at 26.5. Was way too windy for the propane heaters. Damage already apparent on most everything

February 1

Was watching a live stream of someone at Disney. Looks like they didn’t do any protection for the Satakentia palms on the backside of the new hotel building at the Polynesian Resort.

February 1

25.7F in Belle Isle. Probably won't get above freezing until 10:30, a 10-11 hr freeze. So frustrated. I tried my best to protect but this won't be pretty. Orlando landscapers will be getting lots of business shortly as plant enthusiasts, i guess we turn our attention to survivors and the science of temps/survivability.

February 1

On 2/1/2026 at 8:45 AM, JLM said:

Hit 19.8F which will round to 20F. Could have been much worse. Queens likely defoliated regardless though.

I believe this is the big one of the season. The Panhandle will continue to be at risk for freezing temperatures, and this is definitely not the last freeze, but I think it's probably the worst one.

Hoping for a speedy recovery for everything that's been damaged down south this morning.

20 deg for me. The duration of this is brutal though. Still 24deg at 8:22am.

My rain buckets are completely frozen this time. And this is on the south side of the house by the pool under screen enclosure.

February 1

Well this has been terrible timing for me. I have a lot of kentiopsis olivformis, chambeyronia macrocarpas, dypsis pembanas, buccaneer palm and a coconut. Here in Winter Garden, usually my microclimate is 3 degrees warmer than the surrounding area. Hit 26 and still only reading 28. Of course, I've been out of town for a week and coming back tomorrow, so nothing has been covered. I was able to get a buddy to come over and wrap some Christmas lights on the coconut and buccaneer, but I'm bracing for some devastation....

February 1

37F at the closest station near my development about 4.5 miles East of the Gulf in Naples(west of i75). Tonight and tomorrow will be even colder. The east coast wasn’t as “lucky” this time around.

February 1

I feel sorry for you guys over there in Florida. Us people in Texas are used to these artic outbreaks since they're more common here. But as you know it only takes one cold event to cause havoc. These type of freezes are a reminder that cities and businesses should plant more cold hardy palms to avoid costly removal later on . Lessons were learned ( for the most part) after a historic freeze in 2021 here in Texas. Good luck everyone.

February 1

My parents' place West of Ocala got down to 20° this morning - living true to its 9a nature. I've heard mules and Washies should survive here, albeit the Washingtonias should be mature for better success against freezing cold like this one. From my cameras, they all seem fine (for now), we shall see in a week or so.

Definitely unprecedented cold throughout the Floridian peninsula, less the West Coast from Clearwater southward. I'll be curious to see how my sister's neighbor's coconut fared in Orlando; they're in a warmer climate versus the rest of the city, but even they got down to 25° this morning. No one on the East Coast seems to have been spared by this cold spear, as far south as North Ft Lauderdale.

Lastly, I am extremely curious on how the Beccariophoenix Alfredii are doing throughout central and eastern Florida. My Alfies are fried and it would take a miracle for them to survive this event. I'm not living there so I couldn't protect them, unfortunately, so replacing them and taking precautions in the future is 100% the way to go - lessons learned for sure! I super appreciate all the advice and will take them into the future with me

February 1

On 2/1/2026 at 9:28 AM, Kiplin said:

Well this has been terrible timing for me. I have a lot of kentiopsis olivformis, chambeyronia macrocarpas, dypsis pembanas, buccaneer palm and a coconut. Here in Winter Garden, usually my microclimate is 3 degrees warmer than the surrounding area. Hit 26 and still only reading 28. Of course, I've been out of town for a week and coming back tomorrow, so nothing has been covered. I was able to get a buddy to come over and wrap some Christmas lights on the coconut and buccaneer, but I'm bracing for some devastation....

Ugh, feel for you. I have a friend nearby i need to visit this week and help him assess damage

I had 25 degrees at 7:15 am still 28 @ 9am . Worst is over. I think my Copernicia fallensis and gigas did ok unprotected. Will give them a better look tomorrow . Zero wind. Super quiet and still this morning. Birds hiding.

February 1

28 minutes ago, malibu31 said:

My parents' place West of Ocala got down to 20° this morning - living true to its 9a nature. I've heard mules and Washies should survive here, albeit the Washingtonias should be mature for better success against freezing cold like this one. From my cameras, they all seem fine (for now), we shall see in a week or so.

Definitely unprecedented cold throughout the Floridian peninsula, less the West Coast from Clearwater southward. I'll be curious to see how my sister's neighbor's coconut fared in Orlando; they're in a warmer climate versus the rest of the city, but even they got down to 25° this morning. No one on the East Coast seems to have been spared by this cold spear, as far south as North Ft Lauderdale.

Lastly, I am extremely curious on how the Beccariophoenix Alfredii are doing throughout central and eastern Florida. My Alfies are fried and it would take a miracle for them to survive this event. I'm not living there so I couldn't protect them, unfortunately, so replacing them and taking precautions in the future is 100% the way to go - lessons learned for sure! I super appreciate all the advice and will take them into the future with me

Mine had some leaf tip damage initially, but it will be a while until we know the full extent of the damage. There's stuff that looks fine now that will melt as soon as it warms up.

We'll be posting the results of survival/damage/death here:

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/92659-2026-florida-palmageddon-observations-and-damage-photo-thread/

February 1

@kinzyjr and @malibu31 my Alfies had a bit of burn from the previous multiple frosts and cold fronts down to around 27.5 to 29.1F. I recorded 5x 30F (or below) frosts before this morning. With a low of 22.6F and ~12 hours below freezing it'll be a big test on a lot of palms and cycads. At the moment the Alfies look ok, but generally spotting and burn takes a while to really show.

The one that's at bigger risk is the Elaeis Guineensis "Whole Leaf" mutant, which was planted next to a walkway. That formed a perfect little channel for the wind to blow through. It was already about 75% burnt, and this morning looks like there's nothing green at all. Hopefully it'll be like a Royal and get defoliated and grow right back!

According to reports, this was the lowest temp ever recorded in Sanford for February, beating 25F on 2/18/1958. It was not the coldest ever for Sanford. This was recorded at 19F on 12/25/1989, and probably even lower at 17-18F on 12/29/1894 with an unknown cold snap followup on 2/7/1895. Edit: I found an extremeweatherwatch chart with the lowest all time on record:

Darwin shrugged.

February 1

On 1/30/2026 at 8:07 AM, Merlyn said:

30.6F here today versus a local airport temp of 35. The frost is a bit heavier and built from about 7 to 8. I'd still call it "medium" frost but nowhere close to snowlike.

The forecast for Sunday morning is still 24, so there's a really good chance I'll hit 20F. I need to get out and take a bunch of pictures on Saturday so I can see a before-after comparison. Here's a couple of photos of the backyard yesterday morning:

At the moment the only burned stuff is cycads, some of which will lightly burn at 30F with frost. Repeated frosts did do "cumulative damage" but really it looks like we just had a single 27-28F frost. The only one that took really progressively more and more damage is the Bottle on the right of the top photo. The first frost burnt it 20% or so...then 50%, then 100%. There's another about 5 feet to the right of the photo and it's burnt about 80%.

@sonoranfans I wanted to get your thoughts on this...initially I've always thought "frost causes the worst damage." That's because in CA I've read a lot of 28-35F reports with minimal damage, and the same palm in a 30F frost event is torched here in FL. My assumption is that the frost was a damage multiplier, and that windy cold fronts were not as damaging. However...I realized this morning that I don't think I've actually had a windy sub-30F cold front here. At least I haven't recorded one and don't remember it. Most of my palms and cycads are hardy to around 30F anyway, so I probably wouldn't have even noticed it. One thing I did notice is that windy cold fronts near freezing tend to burn things like the Ficus Auriculata and the Seagrapes from top to bottom...where a still frosty one just burns the top leaves to a crisp.

With all that said, what do you think of this as a rule of thumb to stick in my mind? "Frosty still cold fronts burn the top, exposed leaves and exposed buds, but it's generally cosmetic damage unless severe. Windy cold fronts burn *all* the fronds top to bottom, and are more damaging to understory palms and more likely to cause trunk damage or kill the bud." Canopy is great protection against frost, but not against a windy 25F.

Way too wordy, but it's what happens on a Friday morning when I'm tired!!!

frost is far more (heat)conductive than air, ~ 500x so for the same temp it cools the plant leaves down faster. If the leaf is not waxy(insulated) it causes the most damage by cooling even faster. The question of air temperature is impacted strongly by winds as moving air masses carry away the black body heat arising from the earth after the sun goes down. A brief cool down means the frost wont last if temps are near freezing, but the melting of frost absorbs heat while the formation releases it. For long term freezes, the rate of cool down is not as important since the plant will see the cold temps after several hours of being frosted and being under 32F. I'd rather have frost for a brief period of radiative cold than a longer frost free advective freeze. I(n 2010 I had C oliviformis and C lepto cheilos defoliated completely as small palms with heavy frost at 28F, but warming up was fairly rapid so the buds were intact, no damage and they survived to grow to adulthood. The best zone pushing(aside active heating) is by using canopy(traps black body heat down) or nearby hardscape(rocks and concrete retain daytime heat better than soil) or both. With wind, the cold is typically longer and the canopy/hardscape advantage is much smaller. So I will take the still winds of the radiative even with frost over a windy cold of a longer duration at the same temps. There are other question to ask like how small are the palms(canopy works better on larger palms), and do they have waxy leaves? I had a small waxy white bismarckia(<18" overall) that was totally frosted in 2010 at 28F, no damage. C. Pembana one was killed outright and two survived after spear pull. The survivors has some canopy/were less frosted. That was a short cold event 28F/frost in 2010, warming above freezing within 3 hrs after the low. The pembana that died was completely open to the sky and had visible frost. I had quite a few crownshafts die t6hat were in the open, small royals, foxtails, foxy ladies. My A ALexandre had one leaf extending out from under the frost cloth it was burned to a crisp but under the frost cloth was almost no damage. Brief colds are easier to push zones of course as you can grow in some canopy or cover small palms, the longer colds are going to be a problem frost or not. For my yard, I'll take the brief colds as it doenst go very much below 32F here, half a dozen times in 15 years but save for that 2010 event 30 was about the minimum. With no canopy or frostcloth a longer 6hr or more 30F cold could easily kill a small Alexandre. Larger palms take longer to cool the bud just by mass. Today I have enough canopy to protect a few extra degrees so I most derinitely want a brief radiative event, and frost is heaviest near the ground so my yard full of large palms that are going to handle frost better. My advice to less experienced here is put in the cold hardy palms first and make sure the open stand alone positions in your yard are more hardy hardy. Bunch areas of less hardy palms so they are more wind and canopy protected. Fast growing cold tolerant palms is the way to start a garden for zone pushing, hold off on the more tender ones till you have some wind/canopy protection. The front of my yard is open and has zero 10a palms, with some even hardy to 8b. In back not too far from the house(a heat source) planted in bunches are the warm 9b/10a palms. If you are going to drop 27 or lower I doubt frost matters for the less cold hardy ones, but near freezing frost can defoliate and even kill them. Frost accumulation is less with more wind, so the windy cold killer is lower temps for a longer time, that is my concern. Use frost cloth on small palms as they ar enot as cold hardy as adults. All cold tolerance data reported is almost always for the adult, do not make the mistake of not understanding this. Small palms in pots will be the most sensitive compared with the adult tolerance. After tjhis even I may push some more, seems like every 15 years we get a bad cold. Grow the tender ones them big and in clusters/canopy before the next one. Also adjust if you do not have enough cold hardy palms, get more cold hardy palms to help protect the tender ones..

February 1

@Merlyn The record low for Sanford officially is 19F. There are two stations that complicate things because there is overlap. One station is at the airport, the other is closer to Lake Monroe.

USW00012854 ORLANDO SANFORD AP, FL US 20251020 19450401
USC00087982 SANFORD, FL US 20251021 18991001

February 1

1 hour ago, PalmBossTampa said:

I had 25 degrees at 7:15 am still 28 @ 9am . Worst is over. I think my Copernicia fallensis and gigas did ok unprotected. Will give them a better look tomorrow . Zero wind. Super quiet and still this morning. Birds hiding.

damage takes 1-3 weeks to show. Tonight is another cold one. I would have covered these at 25F and their small size. They may be OK, but the gigas has apparently lost wax from the leaves. Losing wax like that means brown dead leaves. But survival may be in the cards as the bud temp not leaf temp determines survival. Fallaensis are reported to survive 26F, not sure about rigida. You may have dodged a bullet, the fallaensis looks pretty good. I'd cover them tonight anyway.

February 1

12 minutes ago, sonoranfans said:

damage takes 1-3 weeks to show. Tonight is another cold one. I would have covered these at 25F and their small size. They may be OK, but the gigas has apparently lost wax from the leaves. Losing wax like that means brown dead leaves. But survival may be in the cards as the bud temp not leaf temp determines survival. Fallaensis are reported to survive 26F, not sure about rigida. You may have dodged a bullet, the fallaensis looks pretty good. I'd cover them tonight anyway.

Rigida is small and covered last night. I’ll update but i felt the Copernicia could take more cold if given the proper drainage . I forgot to mention i have a Copernicia curtisii also uncovered at 29 but covered for last night. Roughly 7gal size and clumping

February 1

So how does this rank in history?

February 1

5 minutes ago, HudsonBill said:

So how does this rank in history?

It depends on where you're located.

Just by ambient air temperature, if you're on the east coast from Cape Canaveral to South Florida, probably one of the top 20 worst. If you're in inland Central Florida east of Brandon, roughly as bad as December 2010. West side of Florida by the gulf from Hudson south, a little worse than normal. But then there's the wind...

As far as damage (more important), we'll probably know better come March or April. My top wind speed was 13MPH, but that is lowered by podocarpus, oak, fences, bananas, and other barriers before getting the the station in the open part of the yard. Anyone in the open probably recorded top gusts of 30MPH-40MPH. The damage we see will be inordinate due to the wind, as was the case in January 2018.

Hope everything up there recovers!

February 1

1 hour ago, kinzyjr said:

@Merlyn The record low for Sanford officially is 19F. There are two stations that complicate things because there is overlap. One station is at the airport, the other is closer to Lake Monroe.

USW00012854 ORLANDO SANFORD AP, FL US 20251020 19450401
USC00087982 SANFORD, FL US 20251021 18991001

Yep, I found that after I typed my initial post. In the list of top 10 cold events in Sanford are:

December 24-26th 1989 with 19, 19 and 23F...three of the top 10 coldest in Sanford history
January 21-23rd with 19, 19 and 21F...another 3 of 10
January 14th 1981 at 20F
December 25-26th 1983 at 22 and 21F
December 13th 1962 at 21F
Today tied with January 20th, 1977 at 23F.

For sure the 1980s were much, much worse for Sanford than today. I can see (just based on minimums) why 1989 is still talked about.

First thing this morning the damage wasn't too obvious, most things were still green. I just went around and took another 100 or so photos, and there's stuff progressively turning chocolate brown. The Pygmy Date double in the back is about 75% brown already, but the one up front looks fine. Go figure. Even the big Alfredii outside my computer room window has gone from solid green to a sort of sickly olive. The Philodendron Selloum clump on the E side is mush.

I'm leaving the boxes on things until tomorrow at lunch. It's supposed to get to 27 tonight...

February 1

Since I’m not originally from anywhere around here and aside from vacationing, I’ve really only been coming to Florida in large swaths as a snowbird since 2021 winter,(until I moved here permanently last summer) I will refrain from giving my opinions on what I’m seeing as I really don’t have a good understanding of the nuance of this climate. I simply can’t tell what are the results of cold, draught, disease or hurricanes.

February 1

34 minutes ago, MarkC said:

Since I’m not originally from anywhere around here and aside from vacationing, I’ve really only been coming to Florida in large swaths as a snowbird since 2021 winter,(until I moved here permanently last summer) I will refrain from giving my opinions on what I’m seeing as I really don’t have a good understanding of the nuance of this climate. I simply can’t tell what are the results of cold, draught, disease or hurricanes.

To the extent that things in your photos and around the rest of SWFL look yellow and unhappy as of today, 99% of it is because of drought (on top of the normal seasonal cycle in which everything looks a lot less lush than during the summer). Knock on wood that we don't get anything worse, but this current polar vortex event without freeze or frost will cause superficial damage in Fort Myers and Naples, but shouldn't be enough to kill the healthy well established "usual suspects" in the landscaping. For example royal poincianas will be shocked into dropping all their leaves but they will leaf out again in a couple of months. Tropicals with thin leaves like gingers and philodendron will show a lot of necrotic burn from the cold wind, and coconuts will be extra yellow for a while. Too early for most of the tissue damage that was inflicted last night to show itself, and more on the way tonight. All in all on the west coast we have been fortunate with the way the wind is blowing, there's a world of difference between a couple of nights at 37 and at 27.

Something else is killing that Bismarckia in your one photo though.

February 1

Ice in the fountains at the theme parks

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kljl.JPG.b849efb42f6a9cb6ebf42e3d332797bc.JPG

February 1

7 minutes ago, Matthew92 said:

Ice in the fountains at the theme parks

That’s brutality, the duration is moreso disconcerting.

February 1

In Adventureland in Magic Kingdom: Tiki statues with ice on them. Area roped off due to sheet of ice on the ground below

February 1

I think we bottomed out here at 35 degrees for very briefly around sunrise. Only immediate damage was to a Sanchezia Bush in a sheltered spot. It shriveled up about 20% of its leaves. Other stuff like this will probably show later in the week. I got nervous late last night when they started calling for 32F, but we dodged that thankfully.

February 1

February 1

My covers worked so far even with the wind and an attempt at a windbreak that mostly actually worked. All I needed to do was some adjusting and it's set for tonight. Winds are dying down so I expect I will need all the covers perfect.

February 1

How cold did Jensen Beach and Miami Beach get?

February 1

Went down to around 32F to 33F last night. I left for work at 5:30 this morning and it was 37, mostly cloudy and windy here. Drop mostly happened a little before sunrise I guess. Still breezy here tonight but mostly clear. NWS is saying 31 with frost tonight. I expect to see a lot of 29s and 28s in my area tonight.

February 1

39 minutes ago, Aceraceae said:

How cold did Jensen Beach and Miami Beach get?

February 1

I see 37 for miami beach and 39 for Virginia Key. Of course PBIA in urban south florida had a freeze at 31.. don't see Jensen Beach on that map. Fort Pierce airport and Orlando at mid 20s and Miami FTL both at 35 were dead on what was forecasted.

A very good weather forecast on this event.

February 2

Pictures of coconut palms shown previously, prepared for last night's freeze.

With a ladder a couple of steps short we got 3 loops of 5 watt/ft heating wire over the top out of 50 ft total and a couple of moving blankets but not sure we covered everything, would have felt safer with jimbean's setup but hope it was enough:

The small Archontophoenix cunninghamiana in the foreground also got covered

The smaller 3 coconut trees got 15 ft of heating wire each, maybe not enough for the largest, plus a blanket and a tarp:

The smallest one also got a sheet zip-tied to cover the fronds.

February 2

The temperature station I ordered had a proprietary cable that was too short so it was a bust. PAFB is usually good proxy for my location in Satellite Beach, neighborhood stations can be 1-2 degrees less in a radiational cooling event but for a strong advective event about the same:

So about 9-10 hours freezing:

About the same for MLB (Note report of light snow at 9:53 PM):

As a point of comparison, for the 1989 freeze MLB reported consecutive lows of 25, 22, 27, 32 on December 23-26, 1989.

February 2

6 hours ago, aabell said:

Something else is killing that Bismarckia in your one photo though.

I wondered the same thing. I thought it was a weevil infestation at first. But it might just be the crazy weight of all those seeds just demolishing the lower fronds. I saw something similar a couple of years ago with some tall Phoenix Dactylifera.

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