It was indeed a frosty early Sat. morning with the official low at the Int'l. Airport dropping to 30 degrees...31 at my house on the S'side...upper 20s on the Westside. The beaches & intracoastal stayed safely above freezing. So that means the official growing season for Jax is over after 222 days going back to April 9th. The average growing season is 279 days -- the combination of a late & early season freeze made for a short growing season...by Jax standards. The avg. first freeze at JIA is Dec. 3rd with a seasonal average of 18 freezes. But even though it was an "early freeze", we've had earlier -- Oct. 3rd, 1954 at 29 degrees!
For most of the area -- & all of Duval Co. -- the freeze was not of the duration or intensity to kill vegetation that's at all hardy. But with any luck the recent cold will knock out some of the mosquitos.
As for this week...an active weather pattern is about to commence. The next 2 days will be warm & dry with afternoon highs well into the 70s & possibly flirting with 80 in a few spots. In the meantime, a strong polar cold front will be crossing the north two-thirds of the U.S. producing lots of rain but only limited amounts of ice & snow behind the front. It looks like the bigger weather-related problems for some of the major aiports -- Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Boston & New York City -- will be low clouds & rain. Wednesday the bulk of the rain will be in 200-300 mile wide area centered from New Orleans to Cincinnati to Buffalo. The cold front should be close enough to the First Coast to bring showers & a few thunderstorms by Thanksgiving afternoon/
evening -- possibly as early as lunchtime in western parts of the viewing area -- Waycross to Lake City. The front will then hang up across Central Florida as a 2nd area of "energy" -- a strong upper level disturbance moves southward through the Rockies. This disturbance will develop low pressure near or over the Gulf of Mexico & the Southeast U.S. by the weekend bringing more rain to the First Coast. This system could have some snow & ice on its northern fringes over parts of the Smoky Mountains & Mid-Atlantic states.
A couple of weeks ago I posted about Comet Holmes which is still visible after dark high in the Northeastern sky (it looks like a fuzzy star but if you're in a dark enough place, it'll appear as an impressive circular cloud). The comet continues to grow & is now estimated to be bigger than the sun! Check out the details in this article in Space.com.
Oct. was the 6th warmest on record - globally -- according to NOAA. Here's their summary for the month:
October 2007 is Ninth Warmest on Record for Contiguous United States Global Temperature Sixth Warmest on Record, as La Niña Continues
Temperatures in October 2007 were the ninth warmest on record for the contiguous U.S., and especially warm in the Northeast, where five states had their warmest October on record. The January-October 2007 U.S. temperature was the ninth warmest since national records began in 1895, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The global surface temperature was sixth warmest on record for October.
Precipitation was above average across the U.S., but not enough to quench the drought plaguing many parts of the country. At the end of October, 35 percent of the contiguous U.S.
remained in moderate-to-exceptional drought, and unusually dry conditions contributed to destructive wildfires in southern California.
U.S. Temperature Highlights
* In the contiguous United States, the average temperature for October was 56.9°F (13.8°C), which was 2.1°F (1.2°C) above the 20th century mean, making it the ninth warmest October on record, based on preliminary data. * Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island had their warmest October on record, and the Northeast overall its second warmest. * The unusually warm conditions reduced energy demand for heating in the Northeast. For the nation overall, temperature related energy demand was 15 percent below average based on NOAA’s Residential Energy Demand Temperature Index.
U.S. Precipitation Highlights
* An average of 2.96 inches fell across the contiguous U.S., which is 0.9 inches above average. * More than six inches of rain in October helped ease the drought in western Tennessee, much of Kentucky, and parts of Virginia and North Carolina, but 67 percent of the Southeast remained in an exceptional drought. With year-to-date precipitation deficits as high as 20 inches, many cities in the region have instituted mandatory water restrictions, as some locations have only a three-month supply remaining.
* Ongoing drought and strong Santa Ana winds brought devastating fires to parts of Southern California. According to preliminary estimates, more than 900,000 acres had burned in October, torching more than 2,000 homes and affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
* Based on preliminary estimates from the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 9.2 million acres had burned across the U.S. by October’s end. The 2007 fire season was the second worst on record, exceeded only by the 2006 season, when 9.8 million acres burned.
* In October, tornadoes erupted nearly every week, with the peak occurring during October 17-19, when a record 87 twisters tore through the Midwest.
Global Highlights
* The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for October was the sixth warmest on record, 0.88° F/0.49° C above the 20th century mean. For the January-October year-to-date period, the global land surface temperature was tied with same period in 2005 for third warmest on record. La Niña ENSO (El Niño-Southern
Oscillation) conditions persisted in the equatorial Pacific in October.
* In Costa Rica, heavy rain that fell between October 10-11 caused widespread floods that washed away over 800 homes and prompted a deadly mudslide. The mudslide was reported to be the worst weather disaster for Costa Rica in years, claiming more than 10 lives and burying hundreds of homes in the town of Atenas.
* Tropical Storm Noel became the deadliest storm of the 2007 season and made landfall in Haiti on October 29, with maximum sustained winds near 50 mph. The storm caused widespread floods, prompted landslides across the island of Hispaniola, and claimed more than 140 lives in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
