florida 2025-2026 Florida Winter

[pj_orlando_z9b]

Like clockwork, NWS Melbourne changed their wording yesterday to 'models are trending colder' and 'increasing confidence of a freeze'.  Wasn't a shock to me. When there are cold fronts and they show lows 5 to 7 days out, I subtract 3-6 degrees and then family/friends think I'm some weather guru when my forecast pans out. Lol

[JLM]

Hit 34F this morning. Forecast was for 32F.

Tonight is forecast to reach 26F. We will see. Tomorrow night is only 43F and that's actually right after sunset. Temp is then expected to creep upward close to 50F by sunrise Wednesday morning. Beyond that, I'll have to look over model data again later today but as of like 2 days ago there was little to no threat of freezing temps thru the first week of March.

[MarkC]

Honestly, we are better off in Sacramento than most of Florida, including many parts of South Florida away from the coast. I’m just dismayed constantly at how poorly everything non-native does in this state outside of the immediate coasts and microclimates.

You just don’t see this level of cataclysm out west. As long as you have irrigation, things typically grow fairly well(with some exceptions). Towns are littered with beautiful plants and shrubs and extremely tall palms.

But it’s heartbreaking to see all the money spent here going by the wayside, just losing all these beautiful phoenix palms on i4 is a tragedy for all of humanity. 

[Hombre de Palmas]

1 hour ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

Like clockwork, NWS Melbourne changed their wording yesterday to 'models are trending colder' and 'increasing confidence of a freeze'.  Wasn't a shock to me. When there are cold fronts and they show lows 5 to 7 days out, I subtract 3-6 degrees and then family/friends think I'm some weather guru when my forecast pans out. Lol

Exactly, they ripped a degree off almost daily over the past week. Except when they bit off 2 degrees. It correlated to the big NE storm where the Euro and GFS were at odds with the GFS consistently predicting a heavier snowstorm. The GFS won the argument regarding the veracity of the snowstorm. Still to be determined is the minimum for tomorrow night which the GFS has 9°F warmer than the Euro. This rather large divergence has also been consistent over the past week. Hopefully they win that argument as well! Another frost is not needed.

[Hombre de Palmas]

59 minutes ago, MarkC said:

Honestly, we are better off in Sacramento than most of Florida, including many parts of South Florida away from the coast. I’m just dismayed constantly at how poorly everything non-native does in this state outside of the immediate coasts and microclimates.

You just don’t see this level of cataclysm out west. As long as you have irrigation, things typically grow fairly well(with some exceptions). Towns are littered with beautiful plants and shrubs and extremely tall palms.

But it’s heartbreaking to see all the money spent here going by the wayside, just losing all these beautiful phoenix palms on i4 is a tragedy for all of humanity. 

Tall palms like Washies and Sabals didn't miss a beat here. The Royals most likely will recover. Phoenix roebelenii took some burn which took over a week to show up, but are otherwise healthy.  Reclinata and canarienses did fine although the Canaries have been dying out here for other reasons.  Other palms like Bismarcks and Livistonas show some stress on certain specimens but not most of them, and even those affected should recover quickly.  So all is not lost. Lessons to be learned...

[MarkC]

2 hours ago, Hombre de Palmas said:

Tall palms like Washies and Sabals didn't miss a beat here. The Royals most likely will recover. Phoenix roebelenii took some burn which took over a week to show up, but are otherwise healthy.  Reclinata and canarienses did fine although the Canaries have been dying out here for other reasons.  Other palms like Bismarcks and Livistonas show some stress on certain specimens but not most of them, and even those affected should recover quickly.  So all is not lost. Lessons to be learned...

I don’t agree with your overall contention, please tell me where in Florida are there large naturally growing Washingtonias that aren’t in various stages of decay? Where are all those grown from seed exotics that haven’t succumbed to some pestilence?

Everywhere I look outside of the coasts, microclimates near lakes or planted as mature, there are few healthy, majestic specimens of anything. Compare that to California where you can see healthy, tall palms and exotics nearly everywhere. There’s all sorts of reasons why palms can’t/don’t make it to such sizes in these areas of Florida, but ultimately the reasons don’t matter, we are result focused.

I see lack of results. And given the amount of time Florida has had to accumulate palms…. Where are they? Where’s all the palms? Is it some sort of paradox?

[kinzyjr]

The weather stations here at the ranch recorded 43F and some extra tenths in some spots.  The hourly records at KLAL were only slightly lower.  The forecast tonight sits at 32^oF (NWS)- 34^oF (TWC) after briefly dropping down a degree or two.  Interior and lakeside Orlando should dodge a freeze, but the rest of the I-4 corridor will likely hit freezing and/or see frost.  We'll see how it goes the next couple of days.

[flplantguy]

Palms here are killed by lightning a lot, hence no tall washingtonias even in dry soil areas like spring Hill.  Then there is the summer heat and humidity and diseases, you can't add more "dry" during heavy rain periods, whearas you can add more water when there is a drought.  Many homes are newer, hurricanes, etc. There are a lot of potential reasons for less impressive palms than other places, but cold is a major one for sure.  I am leaving out natives of course.

[pj_orlando_z9b]

2 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

The weather stations here at the ranch recorded 43F and some extra tenths in some spots.  The hourly records at KLAL were only slightly lower.  The forecast tonight sits at 32^oF (NWS)- 34^oF (TWC) after briefly dropping down a degree or two.  Interior and lakeside Orlando should dodge a freeze, but the rest of the I-4 corridor will likely hit freezing and/or see frost.  We'll see how it goes the next couple of days.

Update from Belle Isle. Dewpoint continues to rise. Up to 35F. I drenched areas of the yard today but the light westerly winds are likely helping from Lake Conway. I see a station on a boat dock has a dewpoint of 40F while areas a few miles N and E have dewpoints in the 20s. Lake is 75F water. Not sure if a warm lake helps that much but I sure hope so. 

[FlaPalmLover]

Florida doesn't really rely on palms as much for its landscape, from what I've seen, as there's a certain charm and appeal even to just the type of foliage you see around Ocala or Jacksonville, where it's mostly mature live oaks, old sabals (some of which look more like a wild shrub at times than a palm), etc. Granted, very little of that is visible from the interstates, where a lot of the planting choices have been poor. You have to drive through the local roads to see the old growth. The more exotic/majestic palms will always be centered around the coasts and wealthier areas I'd say. And Florida was a pretty cheap place to live/retire before the COVID mass migration, so California probably has had more money dumped into such things in general.

[kinzyjr]

18 minutes ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

Update from Belle Isle. Dewpoint continues to rise. Up to 35F. I drenched areas of the yard today but the light westerly winds are likely helping from Lake Conway. I see a station on a boat dock has a dewpoint of 40F while areas a few miles N and E have dewpoints in the 20s. Lake is 75F water. Not sure if a warm lake helps that much but I sure hope so. 

I think you're in good shape.  If it wasn't such a far drive to a few of the sites my work takes me to, I'd be your neighbor by now.

[Matthew92]

38 deg at 8:55pm here. Forecast low is 26deg. Not sure if the bottom will really fall out to get to 26 or if it will slow down for a light freeze in the upper 20’s. Will see…

[kinzyjr]

Everyone gets in on the fun tonight.

[flplantguy]

I know better, going to bed at 53 degrees and matching Miami at 10pm, that it won't be all that warm in the morning. It drops like a rock every time and there are 30s showing up inland already.  I don't think it will hit freezing here but it will be close, but even if it's the last one that's 4 months of off and on freezing weather. It feels like the desert winter from when I was a kid, just hotter between cold fronts.  Testing the new greenhouse to see how it fares with no active heat and only enclosed to the outside air, I'm not expecting much with only the plastic and wood and no stone floor yet.