Severe Weather Report 4 South Florida

[Dianna Vesta]

Issued at: 5:30 AM EST 1/22/03, expires at: 5:00 PM EST 1/22/03
A freeze watch for interior and inland metro areas Friday morning, A very strong cold front will
move across south Florida Thursday ahead of an arctic high pressure system building into the south
us. This will likely result in the coldest temperatures so far this winter season, and the coldest
since the freeze situation of january 5 2001. The lowest temperatures Friday morning will possibly
be in the 20s over the interior portions of south Florida. Temperatures may dip into the mid 20s
in the colder locations such as immokalee, moore haven, labelle, palmdale, clewiston, and belle
glade. Elsewhere temperatures may range from near 30 degrees over a large portion of interior south
Florida including the redlands in miami-dade county. The lower to mid 30s will occur in the naples
and west palm beach areas to around 40 degrees in the fort lauderdale and miami metro areas. This
would be about 3 to 6 degrees colder than this past weekend. Temperatures could be below freezing
for sev!
eral hours over the interior locations on Thursday and Friday night. In addition, gusty
northwesterly winds of 10 to 15 mph are expected thursday night and early Friday morning after the passage
of the cold front. This will result in wind chills late Thursday night into early Friday morning
dropping as low as the teens over parts of northern interior south Florida, to around 30 in the
metro areas of south Florida. A wind chill advisory will likely be needed over all of south Florida
Thursday night and Friday morning. The winds will decrease Friday night which will result in good
radiational cooling, where temperatures can fall again to near or below freezing for interior south
Florida. At this time, a significant warmup is not expected until Sunday. Since this arctic blast
looks even colder than last weekend, persons with agricultural interests should begin preparing
now to take protective action for Thursday, Friday, and possibly even Saturday nights. Residents of
south Flo!
rida should stay tuned to noaa weather radio or other media for updates on this potential freeze
situation. Additional information and detailed graphics can be found on the national weather
service web site at http://treets.nbc6.net/svc/lnk.cfm?l=16853014&t=1.