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| Warm days will come to an end this weekend. . . only briefly. Temperatures will see-saw back to near 80° F (27° C) early next week. Today temperatures were balmy. . .in the upper 70°s (25° C). |
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| The sun has started its slow but relentless climb higher in the southern sky. In Florida each day is almost a minute longer than the one prior until the end of January. In February the days gain a minute and a half so that by February 29th our days will be 11 hours and 34 minutes long. |
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| Despite the lengthening daylight hours cold fronts are still sweeping the Florida peninsula. Tonight a pair of fronts will cross Florida. The second, strong cold front will pass over the central peninsula overnight and bring daytime high temperatures down into the low 60°s F (11° C) tomorrow. It will be cold enough for a couple of nights that we'll have to move in the plants -- again -- or cover them. While no freeze is forecast, damaging frosty conditions are possible when the temperatures drop below 40° F (4.44° C). |
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| We received virtually no rain from the past few cold fronts . . . and the two cold fronts tonight will be no different. Our total rainfall from all the cold fronts this month totals less than one tenth (.10) of an inch (2.54 mm). |
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| These seagulls don't seem to mind the warmth of the Florida winter. While the image hints at rain in the distance. . . its really only clouds caused by the very warm air over relatively cooler waters surrounding Florida. |
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| The air behind the second cold front will be much drier than what we've already been experiencing. |
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| La Niña conditions in the equatorial Pacific Ocean are to blame for our worsening drought conditions. This is our 3rd straight year of exceptionally dry winter conditions caused by La Niña. Read more about the phenomenon at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center or on my Florida Dry Season Forecast page. |
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| I always find it interesting that we are surrounded by water and yet we are often desperate for rain. It is a fluke of thermodynamics, physics, and a warming planet that the Florida Peninsula happens to be in a zone where drought is increasingly prevalent. |
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| Some Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) with the recent moon. |
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| The Wolf Moon occurred on Monday night (9th January). The January full moon was so-named because Native Americans heard wolf packs howling -- hungry -- outside their villages. February's full moon will be the Snow Moon |
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