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Forecast Calls For 1st Freeze Since '05

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By NEIL JOHNSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 1, 2008

Updated: 12/31/2007 10:57 pm

TAMPA - A powerful blast of cold air could send temperatures on Thursday morning into the low 20s in Hillsborough County, into the teens in Pasco County and possibly bring a rare freeze to Pinellas County. The freeze could endanger strawberry crops and possibly citrus as well.

The National Weather Service forecast calls for temperatures to fall to the middle 20s in and around Tampa and low 20s in eastern Hillsborough on Thursday morning and dip to the teens in Hernando County and eastern Pasco County.

Pinellas could see 31 degrees.

The wind chill could be in the teens over Hillsborough and Pasco and plummet to single digits in Hernando. The wind chill in Pinellas is forecast to be 21 degrees.

In the current forecast, temperatures should be freezing or below for seven hours or longer. The chill may also be deep enough to threaten orange trees that can be damaged when temperatures fall to 27 degrees or lower for four hours or longer. If temperatures drop as anticipated, strawberry growers will try to cover the plants with a coating of ice as protection, but wind forecast for Thursday morning could hamper those efforts.

The first taste of cold should start rolling in today as the mass of frigid air heads across the state. It will bring a chill to Tampa and Hillsborough County on Wednesday morning, with temperatures in the middle 30s. Eastern Hillsborough can expect temperatures close to freezing.

The weather service has issued a freeze warning for Pasco and Hernando counties from 3 to 8 a.m. Wednesday. A freeze warning means three hours or more of temperatures between 27 and 32 degrees.

The real cold, though, is forecast to arrive Thursday morning.

The weather service said temperatures today should peak early and continue to fall as the cold air moves across the state. A brisk wind will come with the front, and the high may only reach the 60s.

That would come on the heels of a December when temperatures averaged nearly 5 degrees above normal.

On Wednesday, as more cold air rolls over the region, temperatures in the day may reach only into the 50s.

The widespread freezing weather would arrive on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

Temperatures should rise into the middle 60s by Friday afternoon.

The last freeze in Tampa was Jan. 24, 2005, when the temperature at Tampa International Airport was 31.

The last times temperatures fell as low as forecasters expect for Thursday was Jan. 24, 2003, when the temperature at the airport was 27 degrees and Feb. 5, 1996, when the low there was 25 degrees.

The record low in Tampa for Jan. 3 is 26 degrees, set in 1928.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.

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