Another day, another 90-degree high at Palm Beach International Airport on Tuesday, the fourth one in a month that is now running almost 2 degrees above average. That missed tying the record high set in 1941 by 1 degree.
Palm Beach has been spared the 90-degree readings but with the humidity running as high as 93 percent on the island, a morning in the garden means keeping plenty of cold bottled water handy.
While the season’s first snowflakes threaten the Midwest, and people from Chicago to Pittsburgh are checking to see if they have enough antifreeze in their radiators, the air conditioners here labor ever onward.
Friends and neighbors and business contacts from the higher latitudes express surprise when you mention the number 90, which would represent the heat of the summer for most of them. They say: “But I thought by this time of the year ….”
So did we. In addition to the four 90-degree days this month at the airport, we’ve had nine days at 88 or 89. We did have one high of 85 degrees on Oct. 9, which is right around where we’re supposed to be for this time of the year. The average high for today is 84, and the average low is 70.
Miami and Fort Lauderdale tied warm low temperature records Monday, with readings of 78 degrees, matching marks set in 2007. Naples tied its record Monday as well, cooling only to 75 to match the 2007 mark.
Monday morning’s low temperature at Palm Beach International was 76, short of the record warm minimum of 79 set in 1998. The low was 76 this morning at PBIA, well shy of the record of 80 degrees set in 2005. The low was also 76 on Palm Beach.
In contrast, the cold Canadian air mass that has pushed into the Central U.S. dropped temperatures into the 30s Tuesday in Chicago with 20-mph wind gusts. Pittsburgh is looking at a low of 33 tonight with a chance of snow.
Even on the East Coast, Boston is having lows in the 30s all this week; New York will dip into the 40s, and Baltimore will see the high 30s at night with 50s during the day.
The cold front that blows through South Florida this afternoon and tonight should eventually pull temperatures back down to seasonal levels, or perhaps just a tad cooler. The latest forecast shows the nippiest lows west of the Turnpike this weekend, since a northeast wind will dominate after the front goes through, and ocean temperatures are still summer-like.
Friday night’s expected low temperatures around the peninsula: Palm Beach, 70; Miami Beach, 74; Wellington, 66; Royal Palm Beach, 67; Jupiter, 70; Okeechobee, 60; Sebring, 55; La Belle, 58; Immokalee, 60; Weston, 67; Stuart, 66; Fort Pierce, 66; Vero Beach, 65; Orlando, 58; Tampa, 56; and Gainesville, 46.
The Weather Prediction Center, which forecasts precipitation totals for the U.S., is indicating about a half-inch of rain over the next two days for Palm Beach with higher amounts — over an inch — expected in the Keys, southern Miami-Dade County and up into the Northwestern Bahamas.
South Florida is not alone in getting edged out of autumn weather so far this season. It was in the mid-90s Tuesday in Arizona, with the nation’s high of 95 at Death Valley, Calif. It was 94 in Phoenix and 90 in Tucson.