Central Florida has been experiencing a long and brutal cold spell since the beginning of the year. Last night temperatures dropped into mid to low 20s for most of the night.
Temperatures are typically in the low to mid 70s this time of year. Yes, it may drop to the 50s or even 40s but that typically last about two days and then the temperatures are back in the 70s.
A cold front moved in on New Year’s Day and it’s been unseasonably cold ever since.
Yesterday was brutal. The Weather Channel says we got up to 42 degrees. Who knows, maybe at 7 am in the morning but the temperature at my house never rose above 36 degrees. Last night the temperatures dropped into the mid 20s.
Homes aren’t built for this sort of weather here. This house was built for the summer heat. It stays cooler during the summer due to its construction. That means when it gets brutally cold like it has been the house is difficult if not impossible to get warm. The heat pump runs virtually non stop just to get the temperature to something reasonable.
Schools have also been having trouble keeping students warm. In Orange County alone, 13 schools had no heat for all or part of this week. Each school had a different reason for not having heat, though.
Even if the school had heat it didn’t mean that the entire school was warm. My school had heat, but my office and several of the classrooms that run off the same system in my building were frigid at best. The air conditioner folks from the county are looking into the problem. As of Friday, though, it hadn’t been fixed.
It’s supposed to get into the 20s again tonight and tomorrow night. Tuesday night will be in the 30s. It will start to get back to normal Central Florida weather by Friday. That’s two weeks worth of winter weather instead of the usual 2 or 3 days.
James says:
You complaining about cold is like me complaining about the hot summer (I live in New Hampshire). And both complaints are valid… When you’re not set up for the extreme temperatures, it makes it that much harder to deal. The temperature up here hasn’t gone above freezing in two weeks, but I’m very comfortable. Come June, on the other hand… yuck!
1/13/2010, 6:33 amIdaMaria says:
Here in Sweden it’s -4 F and I feel like dying! I would do anything to be in Florida right now
1/14/2010, 9:10 amwedding gowns says:
here in Romania it`s -8 and it`s snowing .. very hard winter here
1/18/2010, 11:25 amZer says:
You guys are good! We have a -30 degrees below zero, to walk on the streets is not possible, in emergency situation
1/19/2010, 11:40 am