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Where have our winters gone?

Weather Authority Alert for tonight as hard freeze will bring coldest in 8 years

Only once have we been 23° or colder over the past 10 years.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Tonight’s forecast low is 23° and if we should see this number it will be the coldest Jacksonville has seen since 2014.

Well, when I saw that, I was shocked. I have been an on-air meteorologist here in Jacksonville since 1988 and have been closely following weather here since 1982 (just after I first met George Winterling). “Back in the day”, during the 1980s, there were multiple times where Jacksonville experienced temperatures well down in the teens, even the single digits! Just from 1979 to 1989 there were 14 mornings that started in the teens. Whoa!

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Since then? Just twice have we dropped into the teens.

Even seeing temperatures drop into the low 20s is a rare occurrence. It has only happened ONCE in the past 10 years and that was January 7th, 2014 when we hit a low of 22°.

Tonight, it is possible we could reach that low, or go below it, but given how mild recent winters have been, that seems to be a real extreme and unlikely possibility.

The biggest takeaway? Bundle up your plants! Even beaches could see temperatures into the 20s by sunrise Sunday.

6-12 hours of freezing temperatures too!