If you thought we could get through the season without a freeze, that’s about to change.
Although there have been 5 winters without any freezing cold mornings, most of those years were when the measurements were taken downtown, or closer to the St. Johns River. The one time we saw no freezing temperatures in a more inland location was the winter of 1949-1950.
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| Winter Season | Number of Freezes |
|---|---|
| 1879-1880 | 0 |
| 1905-1906 | 0 |
| 1912-1913 | 0 |
| 1920-1921 | 0 |
| 1949-1950 | 0 (last season without) |
| 1922-1923 | 1 |
| 6 others winter’s | 1 |
| Most freezes in a winter | |
| 1975-1976 | 31 |
| 2010-2011 | 31 |
| 1977-1978 | 33 |
| 1976-1977 | 37 |
While we have already dropped into the mid 30s several times this year, it has been a while since reaching 32 degrees.
Jacksonville International Airport, where official records are kept, hasn’t seen a freezing night since February 2021 and this year it could come well past the average first freeze date on Dec. 2.
Last year winter 2020-2021, we had a normal number of freezes, 12. The recent average is just half of our normal average of 10 freezes per year in the city.
Our warm December (4th warmest ever) was impressive since November (7th coldest and colder than December) gave us our coldest mornings. January is running two degrees above normal, but if you take out the first two days, that were an eye popping 20° above normal. January has actually, been running slightly below normal and its about to remain that way until the end of the month.
This means we could see not just one freezing cold morning, but a number of freezing cold mornings as we head off into February, but don’t expect anything like the record winter of 1976-1977 when a total of 37 freezes blasted the city.