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South Florida awakes to freezing temperatures
By Ken Kaye and Rachel Hatzipanagos, Sun Sentinel
January 6, 2010
South Floridians woke up to stinging cold conditions, prompting a freeze watch for most of Wednesday.
Feel-like temperatures were recorded at 20 degrees this morning.
Temperatures have nearly reached their lows as of 6 a.m., from 40
degrees reported at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Afternoon highs were expected to reach the mid- to upper 50s, with
evening lows in the low to mid-30s.
Both Broward and Palm Beach counties cold weather shelters have been busy this month, and keep getting busier.
In Palm Beach County,
there were a total of 126 people who checked in overnight between the
county's two shelters, up from 69 on Monday night, said Mary Blakeney,
the county's assistant operations manager.
Palm Beach County has yet to decide whether shelters will be open Wednesday night.
Farmers Wednesday morning were still checking to see if there was
damage to sensitive crops like corn and sugar cane.
Although conditions should warm slightly on Thursday, another cold
front is expected to move over the region on Friday, the weather
service said.
The wind chill advisory will also affect the area's wildlife, with an advisory issued for the Everglades National Park.
Due to the freezing weather, Butterfly World in Coconut Creek moved
10,000 butterflies from their aviaries to a warmer hatchery earlier
this week.
"They can't fly when it's below 72 degrees," said Chad Barb, a park
manager. "When it gets below 40, we bring them all inside. They're
actually pretty easy to catch when it's this cold."
Barb said freezing cold would kill the butterflies, which come from South and Central America, and Asia.
"We can't have a massive loss of these things," he said. "We collect them whenever there's a hurricane or for the super cold."
On Tuesday, the chilly weather offered visitors a rare chance to see
the hatchery, which is normally closed to the public. Many of the
visitors wore University of Iowa shirts and were here for the Orange
Bowl.
Gov. Charlie Crist signed an emergency order Tuesday due to the
weather's threat to the agriculture industry as farmers try to salvage
millions of dollars of citrus and vegetable crops.
In case you were wondering, South Florida is not even close to seeing snowflakes.
"You would need temperature at or very close to freezing at the surface
as a first condition," said meteorologist Dan Dixon, with the weather
service. "The second condition is some sort of precipitation to get
snow…it's very unlikely."
Staff Writer Jerome Burdi contributed to this report. Staff Photographer Joe Cavaretta contributed to this report.
Ken Kaye can be reached at kkaye@sunsentinel.com or 954-572-2085.