A splash of springtime heat will quickly turn to a wintry chill in the coming days as a meaty cold front descends through Florida promising a whiplash of seasons.
Record-chasing high temperatures of up to 15 degrees above normal in some areas of the Sunshine State on Friday, Feb. 20 are forecast to dive into the 30s and 40s in the Panhandle on Monday morning. Residents in the southern reaches of the state will wake Tuesday to the low 50s in Miami and 40s in Naples.
Daytime highs early in the week are expected to only reach into the 60s in South Florida and 50s in North Florida.
“Enjoy the warmth while you can because winter will be greeting us once again by Sunday and Monday in the wake of a strong cold front,” wrote meteorologists in the National Weather Service’s Mobile office, which forecasts for Pensacola.
AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said high pressure over Florida ahead of a cross-country winter storm is pulling up warm air from the tropics to spike temperatures later in the week and over the weekend.
Jacksonville International Airport could feel a high of 86 degrees Friday, a full 16 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year.
But an area of low pressure tracking out of the Rockies and into the Great Plains will then take a northeastern turn dragging a cold front behind it. There’s also a chance that counterclockwise swirl of low pressure forms along the cold front near the Mid Atlantic, which could add oomph to what pushes through Florida.
How low will Florida temperatures fall with the cold front?
Tuesday’s high temperature in Jacksonville could reach only into the upper 50s, about 30 degrees colder than a few days earlier.
Buckingham cautioned that the timing of the front may be slowed or hastened by the secondary area of low pressure.
“Luckily, this time around, it will be no where near the extremes that we’ve seen previously this winter as we are getting to a higher sun angle and there’s not quite as bit a tap into that colder Canadian air,” he said.
Meteorological spring begins March 1, while astronomical spring doesn’t start until the vernal equinox on March 20 when the sun crosses the equator.
Between Feb. 1 and 3, freezing to near-freezing temperatures reached deep into South Florida where an untold number of invasive iguanas were killed. Iguanas become cold-stunned when temperatures dip from about 40 to 50 degrees, but can die if there’s a freeze or the cold stick around too long.
About 5,200 cold-stunned iguanas were turned into the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission during a special two-day program where they were collected and euthanized or given to permitted handlers for sale out of state.
“We think there were tens of thousands of iguanas who didn’t make it through to the other side of that storm,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis during a President’s Day unveiling of a statue of President James Monroe. “This will be a noticeable major setback for their population.”
Melbourne-based National Weather Service meteorologist Tim Sedlock said it’s not unusual to get strong cold fronts in February, but that they will begin to fizzle before they reach Central Florida in late March to April.
“It’s still possible to get fronts, but they won’t have the punch that they have earlier in the season because the jet stream moves farther north,” Sedlock said.
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A Southeast Regional Climate Center forecast map for Friday, Feb. 20 showing the departure from normal of the daily high temperatures.
Still, his office is forecasting wind chill temperatures in the upper 20s to mid-30s for areas of inland Central Florida.
“These will not be record lows, but still well below normal,” Sedlock said.
Will the cold front affect potential fires because of Florida’s drought?
With the cold temperatures being driven by dry northwest winds, there is also a heightened concern for wildfires, Buckingham noted.
Thirty-five Florida counties are under burn bans from Collier to Alachua, and 99% of the state is in some stage of drought, including 43% in extreme drought. A new drought report will be released Feb. 19.
The Keetch-Byram Drought Index, used by the Florida Forest Service, shows areas around Lake Okeechobee and south as being the driest in the state.
The index measures drought on a 0-to-800 scale with 800 being desert-like and 0 being saturated ground. Typically, anything over 600 is associated with drought conditions.
In a Tuesday, Feb. 17 report, everything from Manatee County across the state to St. Lucie County and south to the Keys was considered above 600.
“We’ll be keeping a close eye on the wildfire risk,” Buckingham said. “As of right now, this cold front is not looking like a big rainmaker.”
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for the USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA. She covers weather, the environment and critters as the Embracing Florida reporter. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
Mia Cruz peeks out from her bundle of clothes to watch the sunrise as temperatures dropped near freezing on February, 2026, in Palm Beach, Florida.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cold front to drop Florida temperatures by 30 degrees in some areas
