florida 2025-2026 Florida Winter

[Hurricanepalms]

Hopefully, I am not speaking too soon, but thank God this front didn’t come in January! It could have been a repeat of 77 or 89.

[SubTropicRay]

So when looking at the calendar, you might say April through October months are your friends.  November through March are real sons of b----s.  Even though November and March are of concern, they don't pose real freeze threats in my neck of the woods.  Tampa's last March freeze was in 1980 and last November freeze was 1970.  That said, Tampa's record low for November is 23 dating back to horse and carriage days.  When considering this, we got off light this year.  Count your blessings and move forward.  There's more fun where this came from 😆

[RiverCityRichard]

Yard stayed between 36.2 and 37.4 per depending on the sensor. 2f+ warmer than the forecasts. Wind stayed whipping all night, so wouldn’t be surprised to see some desiccated leaves in coming days. Not much of a test of the garden, but hopefully that polar vortex picks a different place to drop down next time

[flplantguy]

Low was 35.2 for me, about what I expected/hoped for. Forecast ranged from 32 to 36 with most lower than it actually was.  Tonight is a concern with 35 forecast again and patchy frost, dew point is 28 so I'm worried the drop will be worse in the calm. It rained before the front too so I'm hoping that helps, but after last January I'm a bit apprehensive since radiational cooling nights tend to run lower than forecast for me.  Already seeing some dessicated leaves on plants too.

[TropicsEnjoyer]

low of 31 for me in northern st aug. no frost it was too dry. not any damage yet either from what i can see

[kinzyjr]

Not the types of records I like setting, but it's a record none the less:

This Twitter/X post was found at this link: https://weather.com/forecast/regional/news/2025-11-10-record-cold-florida-southeast-freeze

I guess they rounded up our 35.6F at the airport to 36F for the official record.  The Lakeland station has records back to the 1940s available for download and back to the early 1900s in COOP format.  That's a lot of data to beat a daily record low by 8F.

A few other excerpts of interest from the link:

Orlando, Florida (36), tied for second coldest/earliest low, with Nov. 3, 1954 (36), and behind only Nov. 10, 1913 (35). 

Orlando Executive Airport recorded 37F - a smidge higher than KMCO.  This is included for clarity for anyone in the area wondering where in Orlando the 36F was recorded.

Cold Records

Dozens of daily records have been tied or set during this cold outbreak, including records tied for the coldest so early in the season in Key West, Florida (57), Fort Myers, Florida (42), Melbourne, Florida (37), and Gulfport, Mississippi (27). However, each of the dates each city tied for happened at least one week earlier in the calendar than this Veterans Day cold.

@carlosinkw We didn't want to leave you out of the fun.  

[HudsonBill]

31 degrees not for from me and 36.8 in my yard already at 11pm.  We are screwed tonight and its November. I don't understand how this is even possible. 

[kinzyjr]

27 minutes ago, HudsonBill said:

31 degrees not for from me and 36.8 in my yard already at 11pm.  We are screwed tonight and its November. I don't understand how this is even possible. 

It happens.  Everyone has their turn in the barrel.  Aside from that, I'm sorry you are seeing this happen and hopefully your plants will be OK.

Ray's post earlier about Tampa recording 23F in November makes this look like a cake walk by comparison.  The database I keep made finding the date relatively easy: 11/25/1970, the day before Thanksgiving.  The low at Lakeland Linder (KLAL) for the same event was 28F.  Given the thermodynamics of the two locations, that should never happen (KLAL milder than KTPA), but the cold goes where it goes and averages aren't laws.

They should rename zone-pushing to Russian-Roulette-with-Plants.

This cold snap reminds me of January 3rd, 2008 when most of Florida west of US-27 got nailed with 20s, while it was in the 30s on the east side of the state the entire way up to Fernandina Beach.

Tonight's Scary Screenshot: Imagine living 100 miles further south with tons of water around you and still see the same thing.  There's another 31F in there just above Hillsborough Blvd.

[flplantguy]

Second morning is worse for me, 30 degrees for the last 5 hours and frost on everything. All the stuff in the open will be killed most likely, you can already see it and it's still below freezing.

[kinzyjr]

Sensors recorded between 38F and 39F in various areas of the yard this morning.  It looks like the airport recorded the same thing my DVP2 did; a minimum of 39F with temperatures bouncing slightly up and slightly down all night.  It would be nice if this was the last time this thread was updated, but that's wishful thinking.

[HudsonBill]

48 minutes ago, flplantguy said:

Second morning is worse for me, 30 degrees for the last 5 hours and frost on everything. All the stuff in the open will be killed most likely, you can already see it and it's still below freezing.

32.3 was the lowest it got here. Was below 33 for about 1 hour. 

[OutpostPalms]

After 29F yesterday, we held 40F in the garden this morning. Most of my bananas leafs are torched from yesterday with some random unscathed leaves and a few pups that are totally fine. Interestingly, The second newest leaf is the unscathed one on 3 different plants. The stalks are alive but overall they’re looking pretty sad now. This was expected eventually but not for another few weeks.

The forecast going forward looks good though.  May not see under 50F by me until December if it holds.  

[Merlyn]

I had 36.5F and medium+ frost this morning.  Officially the Sanford Airport was 40-42F all night.  I noted that Daytona Beach (DAB) only recorded 35 on Tuesday night.  Usually they are a bit colder than SFB. 

I forgot to look at the neighbor's bananas.  When I trashed all my Ice Cream bananas a few years ago they grabbed a couple of culms and are growing them.  I bet they are pretty crispy.  The next few days are supposed to be more normal for November, so we'll see how the yard looks by the weekend.

[HudsonBill]

2 hours ago, Merlyn said:

I had 36.5F and medium+ frost this morning.  Officially the Sanford Airport was 40-42F all night.  I noted that Daytona Beach (DAB) only recorded 35 on Tuesday night.  Usually they are a bit colder than SFB. 

I forgot to look at the neighbor's bananas.  When I trashed all my Ice Cream bananas a few years ago they grabbed a couple of culms and are growing them.  I bet they are pretty crispy.  The next few days are supposed to be more normal for November, so we'll see how the yard looks by the weekend.

I hit 35 the first night and 32.3 the 2nd night. My bananas are all still in perfect shape. Surprised me but I'm happy since I have a few racks that will be ready in another month. 

[sonoranfans]

What concerns me about this early cold snap is that it cools down the gulf.  This means that later in the winter there will be less protection by the gulf as it will be at a lower temperature.  39F low two days here, but I have bunches of palms around the house with windbreak so it was likely warmer vs out in the open.   

[kinzyjr]

The attached ZIP file contains the airport records from the NWS.  They should be viewable after they are extracted with any web browser.  If you have any questions about how to view them, please ask.

 

20251110_obhistory.zip

[flplantguy]

Started seeing damage today, as well as some encouraging successes under the canopy. Chrysalidocarpus basilongus looks like nothing happened (yet) so it may have decent cold tolerance as it gets larger. The others under canopy look untouched, but the spindles are spotting on most of the leaves if not browning today. The most sensitive stuff had leaves fried like I took a blowtorch to them but the stems look ok. Cosmetic damage 11 months apart on the spindles is annoying, but that looks, so far at least, to be it.

[kinzyjr]

11 minutes ago, flplantguy said:

Started seeing damage today, as well as some encouraging successes under the canopy. Chrysalidocarpus basilongus looks like nothing happened (yet) so it may have decent cold tolerance as it gets larger. The others under canopy look untouched, but the spindles are spotting on most of the leaves if not browning today. The most sensitive stuff had leaves fried like I took a blowtorch to them but the stems look ok. Cosmetic damage 11 months apart on the spindles is annoying, but that looks, so far at least, to be it.

Hope most, if not all, of it pulls through.  We've got a bumpy ride ahead of us.

[SeanK]

On 11/13/2025 at 6:45 PM, flplantguy said:

Started seeing damage today, as well as some encouraging successes under the canopy. Chrysalidocarpus basilongus looks like nothing happened (yet) so it may have decent cold tolerance as it gets larger. The others under canopy look untouched, but the spindles are spotting on most of the leaves if not browning today. The most sensitive stuff had leaves fried like I took a blowtorch to them but the stems look ok. Cosmetic damage 11 months apart on the spindles is annoying, but that looks, so far at least, to be it.

A prophylaxis of hydrogen peroxide wouldn't hurt.

[flplantguy]

7 hours ago, SeanK said:

A prophylaxis of hydrogen peroxide wouldn't hurt.

I have it on a schedule for this reason lol. It's the single best thing I think for gardening, I have it on hand at all times, and do a crown soak before a heavy rain event too since it doesn't hurt.  They look good in terms of that, but can't be too careful going into winter🥶

[kinzyjr]

Keep your eyes peeled for a cool down around Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving cool-off in the forecast:

 

A follow-up to our last cold blast: https://weather.com/forecast/regional/news/2025-11-10-record-cold-florida-southeast-freeze

In other news - Polar Vortex:

https://weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/2025-11-17-polar-vortex-weakening-stratospheric-warming-november

 

 

[JLM]

December looks like it could be quite chilly at times, thats all ill say for now.

Its actually kind of crazy how quick that cold snap came in, and how quickly it left. Below is my temperature observations so far for November (LO observed in the morning):

[kinzyjr]

It looks like Thanksgiving and Black Friday will be enough to get your attention, but not below 40F.  There's a good chance we'll finish the month with less than a quarter inch of rain as well:

[JLM]

I was supposed to have a freeze this morning. However, a deck of stratus clouds stuck below warmer and drier air aloft has kept the temperature from falling overnight to amount to much. On top of that, winds were gusty all night, making horrid conditions for any kind of radiational cooling. With all that, what was originally supposed to be 32F ended up being 37F. I'm not complaining too much, keeps my freeze count at 1 for the season so far. 

Now I just need the clouds to break up because its still 37F at 8:30 AM which is kind of ridiculous haha

[JLM]

Low of 25F tonight. Let's see what happens.

[kinzyjr]

3 hours ago, JLM said:

Low of 25F tonight. Let's see what happens.

Holy heck!  The low should be around 70F in Key West.  What a spread for one state.

[JLM]

1 hour ago, kinzyjr said:

Holy heck!  The low should be around 70F in Key West.  What a spread for one state.

Even worse, if the NWS forecast pans out, some spots right on the northern fringes of the Panhandle could dip as low as 23F. Wind chills in the teens expected tomorrow morning. It's gonna be cold!

My young queens, pygmy dates, and bizzy are all getting protected. Everything else should be fine. It's already 43F with a wind chills of 38F as I type this just after 6 PM.

[SeanK]

Tonight & Tuesday AM, expecting 28 in Tallahassee. St Augustine's predicted temps are 20F° higher. An indication of how far the cold will reach.

[JLM]

25.5F this morning. 8 hours and 40 minutes below freezing total.

Expecting 27F tonight before it actually warms up a bit.

[JLM]

Got to 29F this morning. Already warmed up into the 50s. Clouds move in tonight keeping temps from tanking again, only expecting 43F tonight.

[kinzyjr]

We're all crossing our fingers that the cold stuff doesn't make it here come January.

[kinzyjr]

Looks like there will be a cold front right before we start 2026.

[HudsonBill]

6 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

Looks like there will be a cold front right before we start 2026.

Yep im def going to have a freeze. I hate it here lol. I need to move literaly 5 miles west and I coudl grow whatever I want. Insane 

[kinzyjr]

53 minutes ago, HudsonBill said:

Yep im def going to have a freeze. I hate it here lol. I need to move literaly 5 miles west and I coudl grow whatever I want. Insane 

Thus far, it looks like it will freeze the whole way down to the Kathleen area in NW Lakeland.  Since the forecast tends to trend downward as we approach the actual event, it's one to watch as we approach the holidays.

[Matthew92]

27 deg on Dec 15th, and 25 deg on Dec 16th. Most tender bedding plants/sensitive tropical stuff/annuals not in very protected locations got killed back after the 25 deg. I had been visiting Central FL and arrived home right after the freeze. I stepped out of the car and there was actually a smell in the air from all the damaged foliage (to me it smells sort of like old decaying leaves mixed with fresh cut grass). I'm good with it though, kills back the bugs, gives needed chill hours for many plants, and perpetuates the natural cycle of the ecosystems/habitats.

[Matthew92]

[SubTropicRay]

AO is not very negative so widespread freezing is unlikely.  None of this cold was anywhere in the models just 2 days ago. You unfortunately have to watch this like a hawk on a daily basis.

[Matthew92]

 

 

[Matthew92]

 

 

[JLM]

Cold front passes thru here Monday. Heres my forecast lows for each night:
Monday night - 31F
Tuesday night - 27F
Wednesday night - 33F
Thursday night - 39F

My bananas and cannas have all started growing again with the warmth this week, each day has featured highs in the upper 70s. Fresh, bright green grass has also started filling in the backyard like its early March. But strangely enough, some deciduous trees around here are still trying to cling onto some of their leaves. Its been a strange fall/winter so far for sure. Some of my palms have not even blinked at the cold ive had so far, only palms with even minor burn is my bizzy and pygmy date. Hoping that January and February is as easy on us as December has been up to this point.