Cold front to cause whiplash temperatures in South Florida while dumping snow in northeast
A powerful late-season winter storm carrying heavy snow for the Great Lakes and Northeast this week will send temperatures plummeting in South Florida from a scorching 90 degree daytime high to overnights in the 50s.
Record-challenging high temperatures will be felt from West Palm Beach through Miami on Wednesday with the official forecast for Palm Beach International Airport hitting 91 degrees. That’s 10 degrees above normal and would tie the record for the day set in 1975.
The heat is pumping in on southerly winds laden with sticky air from the tropics. Sustained winds of up to 22 mph with gusts to 32 mph are possible ahead of the front, and triggered a wind advisory through 8 p.m. Wednesday. There is also a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms.
“Basically, it’s going to feel like summer,” said Will Redman, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Miami.
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Days with temperatures that peak at near 90 degrees are more common in late July and August, not spring. There were two 90-degree days in March, which ended 3 degrees warmer than normal and with 4.7 more inches of rain that what’s average as measured at PBIA.
“The southerly winds make the hot temperatures more widespread and because it’s tropical air, it’s probably going to be pretty humid,” Redman said.
But by Thursday night into early Friday, the front clears and the overnight lows dip into the 50s and low 60s through the weekend.
While cold fronts that make it through Florida dwindle and weaken as summer nears, Weather Prediction Center meteorologist Marc Shenard said this probably isn’t winter’s last gasp.
“I think there’s at least one more,” he said about another cold front. “There’s going to be a system over the southern U.S. early next week and there is potential it could bring a front into South Florida but it’s far from a done deal.”
Shenard’s office said the front that will reach Florida overnight Wednesday is attached to a “large, long-duration winter storm” that will bring late-season heavy snow across parts of the Great Lakes and Northeast.
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Areas of New York through northern Maine could get 7 inches or more of snow with damaging wind gusts as high as 60 mph. NWS meteorologists in Maine are warning that the combination of heavy, wet snow with gusty winds could cause damage tree limbs and take down power lines.
“Be prepared for a prolonged duration of impact,” they wrote in winter storm watch issued Tuesday.
“We can get this kind of stuff the first week of April but it doesn’t happen every year and this storm looks pretty significant,” Shenard said.
Meteorologists in Miami issued a small craft advisory through 2 p.m. Thursday.
Areas north of Lake Okeechobee into the Big Bend region of Florida could see more severe weather on Wednesday with Orlando, Daytona Beach and Titusville having the highest risk of severe thunderstorms.
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For Palm Beach County, Shenard cautioned not to get overly excited about how the cool front will affect daytime high temperatures, which will remain in the upper 70s to near 80 at least through Monday.
Still, it's a "decent shot" of cold air, he said.
Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Weather: Cold front in South Florida after winter storm in northeast
