Cool Days Coming, But Plant City Won't Beat Coldest Day On Record

PLANT CITY, FL — The weather gurus warned the polar vortex, teaming with a wicked wind, would bring down temperatures across the country, including in Plant City. They weren’t wrong.

The National Weather Service has invoked frightful words and phrases such as “polar vortex” and “life-threatening cold” to describe the arctic air that settled over the Upper Midwest last weekend.

Looking ahead, the cold weather system will also make its way into Florida, bringing temperatures in Plant City to as cold as 46 by Feb. 19, according to some forecast models.

Forecasts show temperatures will remain steady over the next seven days followed by a cool down starting on Feb. 18.

But is this the coldest it’s ever been in Florida?

No.

Florida's record cold temperature was recorded on Feb. 13, 1899, when the temperature in Tallahassee was two degrees below zero, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Center for Environmental Education.

That temperature record will not be broken in this blast of bitter arctic air, but the polar vortex is unusual because the frigid cold is expected to stick around at least through Valentine’s Day in parts of the country.

A meteorological phenomenon that hasn't hit the United States since 2019, a polar vortex is a large area of low pressure located near the poles; and at times during the winter months, the low pressure breaks down, sending south all that bottled-up cold air.

The result? Extremely frigid temperatures and huge plunges of cold air.

This one is living up to its billing.

It has been frightfully cold over much of the north-central United States. On Tuesday, double-digit subzero temperatures were common as far south as Iowa, and the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota, warned the frigid temperatures are made worse by a wind that may make it feel like minus 50 degrees through Sunday.

Temperatures may struggle to make it above zero in many areas over the next week. The stretch of bitterly cold weather was expected to plunge every U.S. state, including Hawaii, below freezing.

Don’t lose hope. Spring is coming, and summer after that — though now might not be the time to tell you summer can bring extreme heat to many areas of the United States. The record high temperature in Florida was 109 degrees, recorded on June 29, 1931, in Monticello.

But even if it does get that hot again in these parts, we won’t be missing the polar vortex, will we?