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Cold Weather To Blow Into Area Today

Michael Spooneybarger / Tampa Tribune

James P. Muncey helps load firewood for Joe Cox of Carrollwood in preparation for the cold.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 15, 2007

Video: Buying Wood

TAMPA - The coming cold spell sent Joe Cox on an errand that a number of Tampa Bay area residents may be running Friday or Saturday, or wish they had.

This morning, when temperatures were climbing into the middle 70s, Cox was on Ehrlich Road buying a load of firewood.

"My wife saw it's going to be cold, so she said she wanted wood to burn," he said.

The lengths of split oak may be welcome Friday morning when, National Weather Service forecasters say, temperatures could fall to the middle 40s in Hillsborough County and upper 30s in Hernando County.

A crackling fireplace will be even more appreciated Saturday morning when the forecast says temperatures might dip into the upper 30s over inland areas of Hillsborough and Pasco counties and lower 40s near the coast.

In Hernando County, temperatures near daybreak Saturday could briefly fall below freezing, said Anthony Reynes, weather service meteorologist in Ruskin.

Forecasters don't expect the freezing weather to last long enough to prompt freeze warnings, he said.

Friday will be a good day for a jacket. Though there will be plenty of sun, temperatures in Tampa aren't expected to rise much above the middle 60s, about 10 degrees or more below recent afternoons.

Forecasters said the chill actually will begin arriving this afternoon when a rapidly moving front crosses the state. It brought sustained winds of about 45 mph to the Panhandle when it blew past this morning.

"Wind and temperature will be the main results of this. I doubt we'll get much rain," Reynes said.

The season's first cold spell shouldn't last long. By Sunday, forecasters said, winds should begin shifting to come from the east or southeast, bringing some warmer, tropical air to the state and chasing the cold.

It's the kind of weather Joe Muncey doesn't mind seeing. It means more customers such as Cox will arrive to buy the oak, hickory, cherry and other hardwood stacked on his property on Ehrlich Road.

Even without a serious cold spell yet, people have been stocking up, buying about one-quarter of his stock of graying wood the past couple months and making him fill the racks again.

"Probably the ones who are going to burn are already stocked up," he said. "But you never know what's coming. You'll see them line up and take all the dry stuff."

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