Page 117 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

CHAPTER 34 - Extreme Weather - Cold

Jacksonville’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, plus its southerly latitude, causes its
winters to be relatively mild. But it is not immune to occasional intrusions of bitter
polar or arctic air. During the winter of 1958, January, February, and March were
unseasonably cold with the month of February having 13 days with low temperatures
below freezing. In those days, many homes were poorly insulated and depended on
space heaters to stave off the cold. On February 13, northeast Florida and Jacksonville
received 1.5 inches of snow, the first snow to cover the ground in 59 years. This was the
year after the Russians launched the first man-made satellite and America was shooting
many rockets into space in an attempt to orbit the earth, too. Many people wanted an
explanation for such a climate change to colder weather because we had been
experiencing a string of mild winters that peaked around 1950. It was thought by many
that the rockets were causing changes in the upper atmosphere.

In January 1960, there were six consecutive days below freezing, the most since
records began in 1872. In that year, December had ten consecutive days at 32 degrees
or lower. It was the coldest December in 25 years. In 1966, an arctic cold outbreak
dropped the temperature to a morning low of 20 degrees, followed by an afternoon high
of only 33. June in that year was the coolest on record, prompting me to write an article
for the April 1967 edition of WeatherWise Magazine, “Florida’s Recent Cool Cycle
Commencing with Snow at Jacksonville.”

In 1975, I met Dr. Steve Browder, head of the Physics Department at Jacksonville
University. He invited me to teach Meteorology as Adjunct Professor at the university
that gave me the opportunity to share the wonders of weather with a younger
generation. This was a time before the Weather Channel, and TV weather reports were
mainly relegated to only three minutes in the 30 minute evening newscasts. These
young people were about to experience some of the coldest weather in Jacksonville’s
history. The first was the winter of 1976-77, our coldest winter on record. The
December-January-February average temperature was 48.9 degrees. The month of
January averaged only 44.0 degrees. A persistent southward shift of the polar jet stream
cause Palm Beach, FL to experience what was normal for Jacksonville, Jacksonville’s
January was normal for Birmingham, AL, Birmingham’s January was a typical
Cincinnati January and Cincinnati experienced what was normal for Minneapolis.

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