>I have recieved some info and stats from Meteorologist and friend Jesse Ferrell regarding the cold morning in the Southeast.

The downright cold air (for Florida and for July) brought shivers to vacationers who fully expected shorts weather whether it be midday or midnight. It’s Florida, what else would you expect. I personally would bring shorts as i would think 70s or even 80s at night, upper 80s to low 90s during the day under steamy sunshine. But not thinking about wearing long pants and a light coat to step outside. That’s what Florida panhandle residents and visitors needed to do this morning when lows plummeted under a classic Canadian air mass of dry air, light wind and clear skies, only thing is, it’s JULY! Not November and it dropped into the 50s!.

These numbers are remarkble.

Crestview 58*
Palm Beach 60

The 58 in Crestview this morning sets a brand new all-time July record low. 61 was the previous record and this is also only 1-degree shy of matching the state’s all-time record low for July of 57 degrees.
For me, to get temperatures this low during a hot part of the year, considering that warm waters surrounding the state would stop radiational cooling by releasing heat and keeping the air over Florida warm at the coolest of times during summer nights, I am amazed to see a front and cold-origin air mass that’s able to penetrate into the tropics at the heart of summertime. I didn’t think it would be posssibly for a polar air mass that originated from a region that is still ice ans snow covered and be able to sweep out the deep, rich tropical atmosphere thousands of miles away and also beat the fight of warm waters that releash heat to the atmosphere. This was overcome and a very rare cold morning was found all the way down in Florida.
Mt LeConte, Tennessee endured a morning low of 42 degrees.
Unofficial readings got even further down the bulb with a 57 degree reading recorded at Wilma, FL and 56 at Bloxham, FL. That Bloxham reading, if offocial would indeed be a new state record for July.
Please check out Jesse’s blog http://www.accuweather.com/mt-news-blogs.asp?partner=rss&blog=Weathermatrix&pgurl=/mtweb/content/Weathermatrix/archives/2009/07/the_florida_without_a_summer.asp for more info.
Thanks for reading.
– Mark