Florida's frosty forecast continues through Saturday

Old man winter is keeping its grip on Florida, at least for a few more days. In fact, some parts of Florida have been colder and snowier than Anchorage Alaska!

Freeze warnings and cold weather advisories are creeping further south tonight and tomorrow. Many parts of the State face abnormally low temperatures in the wake of the historic winter storm that dumped record snow in the Panhandle earlier this week.

Although much of the U.S. is inching towards more normal temperatures, the cold has held on in Florida. Another push of reinforcing cold air should usher in even colder overnight temperatures Friday night.

There is a freeze watch as far south as southwest Florida until Saturday morning. Frost will be likely if the winds remain light enough and the dew point depression is small enough. But there is still some uncertainty about how far south the frost reaches. Regardless, In fact, cold weather advisories go as far south as Fort Myers, Florida.

For tonight, the Panhandle, Big Bend region, the northern part of the state as well as the western coastline are under cold weather advisories. Saturday morning looks to be the coldest day of the week, and perhaps for the season, before a gradual warmup begins to take place after that.

In Jacksonville, temperatures were consecutively below 40° for a 42 hour stretch! This is the 5th longest stretch on record at the JAX International Airport (since 1971).

In the central part of the State, temperatures are roughly 15° below normal. The average temperature this time of year in Tampa is 62°. The temperature on Thursday afternoon was 47°. In the Tampa Bay forecast region, wind chills could dip as low as 22°, prompting the National Weather Service to warn about cold weather-related concerns like hypothermia. Cold weather advisories with wind chills in the lower 20s extend over to east central Florida as well.

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And in south Florida, temperatures have been trending a few degrees colder than originally forecast. Low temperatures for the next few nights will be in the upper 30s to low 40s with wind chills possible near freezing on Saturday morning. Temperatures in the afternoon will stay unseasonable cool, in the lower to mid 60s.

Looking ahead to next week, a high pressure ridge will dip south over Florida bringing an east to southeast wind flow, along with warmer temperatures. It should be a welcome change after the record cold weather events of this week.

According to the 8 to 14-day temperature outlook from the NWS Climate Prediction Center, all of Florida is expecting above-normal temperatures for the next two weeks.