Downward trend in Florida temperatures

RonDEZone7a

Active Member
93
02/07/09
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I found this interesting post on another plant board about a trend for colder winter temperatures being noted in Sebring, Florida. Maybe the whole State of Florida is being noted for color winters than usual?

The linked post from the IPS BB, discusses temps that Walt retrieved from an official site near his Sebring, FL home. The last 4 years has seen downward trend in temps. Sebring is about 2 hours south of Orlando on US 27.

All temperature statistics below taken from the Sebring, Florida FAWN archives:

January 2007

Avg. monthly temperature: 64.56 degrees
Monthly lowest temperature: 33.64 degrees
Monthly highest temperature: 88.03 degrees
2 nights below 40 degrees

January 2008

Avg. monthly Temperature: 62.62 degrees
Monthly lowest temperature: 32.41 degrees
Monthly highest temperature: 85.82 degrees
2 nights below 40 degrees

January 2009

Avg. monthly temperature: 59.62 degrees
Monthly lowest temperature: 29.65 degrees
Monthly highest temperature: 85.96 degrees
5 nights below 40 degrees

January 2010

Avg. monthly temperature: 55.73 degrees
Monthly lowest temperature: 27.36 degrees
Monthly highest temperature: 84.90 degrees
13 nights below 40 degrees

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=22388
 
Some people say global warming should be termed global climate change, since some areas may get cooler, while the overall climate may warm. There are also short-term ups and downs (warmer and cooler periods) that could be just natural or cyclic variation.

I know here in Delaware, it feels like we've had some cooler years recently. While our extreme winter low temps haven't been very cold - even slightly above normal - recent winters have had more snow and ice and the typical summer heat seemed to be missing the past few years. Last summer, we barely needed the AC and I had trouble rooting crotons on my back porch because we stayed mostly in the 70s through much of the summer. Also, my crape myrtles bloomed really late last year - I think because the summer heat was lacking. We didn't have the typical summer drought either and we had to cut the grass right through August. The 1990s, by contrast, seemed much hotter and we had periods with 30 days or more, in a row, with high temps over 90'F. Our lawns used to brown up in the heat of summer and seemed to stop growing for a few weeks.
 
I can tell you that overall, St. Pete (dunno about Sebring) is much warmer than it used to be. Yes - the duration of this cold spell was way longer - we even had a real "winter" instead of a couple of arctic nights, but.....

Back in the 60's, there was one night it got down to 17F.... in one of the warmer south-central Pinellas Co. locations. Even in the 80's it didn't do that. But the 80's were awful. Sure it would only be a few nights, but temps dropped into the low to mid-20s. There were cases of people losing citrus - that didn't happen with this event.

In So. FL, it even snowed in Miami back in 77-78.

I don't think you can equate this winter with whether or not GW exists. The eastern US, which had a corker of a winter, is only a small part of the world. Meanwhile, there are droughts in Australia, floods in Central FL, wicked storms everywhere. GW really should have been called Global Weirdness.

Anyway, if it weren't for heat islands and GW, I think this winter would have had a lot lower temps than we actually got. Our lowest low was about 30. The frost though was a killer.
 
Hi everyone,
Evidently we are in a period of time called a "solar minimum" where the sun doesn't have many sun spots. The cycles come in periods of 9 - 14 years. This is the quietest the sun has been in over a century.
Search " NASA deep solar minimum" on your computer.

We have been in this house for over 20 years and are in 10A. Normally we drag our orchids in the garage once , maybe twice a year when the temps get below 45°. This year we just gave up ! I feel that we are in a one full zone cooler.

And I'm not happy about it.
 
I can tell you that overall, St. Pete (dunno about Sebring) is much warmer than it used to be. Yes - the duration of this cold spell was way longer - we even had a real "winter" instead of a couple of arctic nights, but.....

Back in the 60's, there was one night it got down to 17F.... in one of the warmer south-central Pinellas Co. locations. Even in the 80's it didn't do that. But the 80's were awful. Sure it would only be a few nights, but temps dropped into the low to mid-20s. There were cases of people losing citrus - that didn't happen with this event.

In So. FL, it even snowed in Miami back in 77-78.

I don't think you can equate this winter with whether or not GW exists. The eastern US, which had a corker of a winter, is only a small part of the world. Meanwhile, there are droughts in Australia, floods in Central FL, wicked storms everywhere. GW really should have been called Global Weirdness.

Anyway, if it weren't for heat islands and GW, I think this winter would have had a lot lower temps than we actually got. Our lowest low was about 30. The frost though was a killer.

Lets not forget the "increased" earthquake frequency. It could be because of mass communication we are more aware of them now. Supposedly the Chile earthquake changed the shape of the earth enough that it shortened our calendar year by 1.6 seconds! :eek:
 
Lets not forget the "increased" earthquake frequency. It could be because of mass communication we are more aware of them now. Supposedly the Chile earthquake changed the shape of the earth enough that it shortened our calendar year by 1.6 seconds! :eek:

Yes! That's just amazing, isn't it - and last night they said the city of Conception moved west 10 feet!

Btw, I just noticed my original post said floods in Central FL. I think I meant Central America. Sheesh! (shouldn't post while on painkillers, grr)
 
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