It’s been a very warm winter.
In fact, it seems as if Florida never had a winter season apart from a couple of cold fronts pushing through, briefly knocking down temperatures, but without much of a punch.
At Orlando International Airport, where Orlando’s official temperatures are recorded, we only has two mornings with temperatures in the 30s. These low temperatures of 36 and 38 degrees were recorded January 8 and 30, respectively.
But mornings were not the only period of the day remaining warm. Since December 1, when meteorological winter (the coolest three months of the year) started, afternoons also remained mostly above average for each day. There were only seven days that had high temperatures below 70 degrees.
This may not sound too bad, but consider that the afternoon highs for December, January and February are of 73, 71, and 74 degrees respectively. Also, many days we stayed 10-15 degrees above average.
"This means that more than half of our winter days were in the 80s, " said George Waldenberger, WFTV's certified meteorologist.
Out of the 90 days in the meteorological winter, 46 were in the 80s and the rest in the 70s.
To be fair, we did warn you about an expected warmer winter, since a La Niña phase predicted in the fall of 2016. When a La Niña oscillation is present, drier and warmer weather is forecast across much of the southern half of the contiguous United States, including Florida.
Even going beyond these phases such as El Niño or in this case, La Niña, historic data also points that winters are warming faster than any other seasons. Since reliable data started in 1970, winters have warmed 1.4 degrees in Orlando, and this trend is expected to continue.
It is important to note that a warm winter does not lead to an extra hot summer. There are many other variables that come to play during the summer months.
March, April and May are forecast to have above-average temperatures as well. Of course, there is still time to have a few drops in temperatures, especially during the March when it is still possible for fronts to make it to the Sunshine State with a little bit of punch.
We have to move into March to cool off this February heat," said Tom Terry, WFTV's chief meteorologist.
The first weekend of March will see slightly below-average temperatures and plenty of sunshine, but this will be quickly followed by afternoons in the 80s for the first work week of the month.