How cold will South Florida get this weekend? What you need to know about wind chills
By Omar Rodríguez Ortiz and
Devoun Cetoute
Fanny Kuhn, 32, right, visiting from Sweden, braced herself along with members of the Dolphins and Rainbows swimming clubs for an early morning swim in Miami Beach on Jan. 30, 2022, when temperatures hit the low 40s. A front is expected to bring low temperatures over the weekend in South Florida, forecasters say.
Carl Juste
cjuste@miamiherald.com
Folks, take out your sweaters and keep your winter jackets handy this weekend.
A cold front is forecast across South Florida following a mostly warm work week, forecasters say.
On Friday, highs were expected in the upper 70s to the lower 80s thanks to a warm front, but that will soon change.
How cold will it get in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach? Will wind chills make it feel even colder?
Here’s the latest weather update from the National Weather Service:
Friday
The weekend will start Friday afternoon with a 50% chance of showers and maybe a few thunderstorms.
Additional showers are possible in the evening in combination with 5 to 10-mph winds.
The cold front will then push through the area, leading to below-average overnight lows.
Minimum wind chills forecast for Friday night into Saturday morning in South Florida. National Weather Service in Miami
Saturday
Temperatures are set to drop considerably overnight into Saturday morning with lows in the mid-50s to lower 60s, with the coldest areas near Lake Okeechobee, as the front moves into South Florida.
Winds from 10 to 25 mph are anticipated in some areas with up to 30 mph wind gusts. As a result, wind chills, or how the temperature feels, should be in the low 40s to the mid-50s.
Highs on Saturday afternoon should be in the mid-60s to the low-70s before temperatures are expected to drop further that night, Miami-based National Weather Service forecaster George Rizzuto told the Miami Herald.
“But we are really going to cool off a little bit more Saturday night into Sunday morning,” Rizzuto said. “That will be the cooler morning of the two for this weekend.”
The map shows the forecast minimum wind chills in South Florida from Saturday night into Sunday morning. National Weather Service in Miami
Sunday
Early Sunday morning, lows are anticipated in the upper 40s to mid-50s, and winds from 10 to 25 mph.
The temperature will feel much colder due to breezy conditions, and it could feel like the high 30s near Lake Okeechobee and the mid-40s in the Homestead area. Closer to the coast, the temperature could feel like the upper 40s to low 50s.
Sunday afternoon will be mostly cloudy with highs in the lower 70s to the upper 60s.
This map shows areas that have an excessive cold risk. Inland portions of South Florida have a limited risk of excessive cold, according to the National Weather Service in Miami. National Weather Service in Miami
Monday
Overnight temperaturelows should be in the upper 50s to the lower 60s, the start of a warming trend, forecasters say. Anticipate a mostly cloudy Monday withhighs in the upper 60s to lower 70s.
1/19/2024 4:45 AM: Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms will develop mainly this afternoon out ahead of an approaching cold front. #flwx. pic.twitter.com/vtYnBwCYLJ
Omar is a bilingual and bicultural journalist, covering breaking news in South Florida for the Miami Herald. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in education from the Universidad de Puerto Rico en Río Piedras.
