ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — With unexpectedly cold weather in the forecast and pandemic-related curfews in some places, Florida is about to have a Christmas unlike any other in recent memory, and it may involve falling iguanas.
The National Weather Service earlier this week warned that South Florida could experience the coldest Christmas Day in 21 years. Morning lows on Saturday could drop into the low 30s and 40s degrees Fahrenheit, the weather service said.
“ Brrr! Much colder temps expected for Christmas,” the National Weather Service in Miami tweeted earlier this week. “Falling iguanas are possible.”
Because they are cold-blooded reptiles, iguanas living in South Florida trees often become immobile in chilly weather, causing them to drop to the ground when the thermometer plummets, though they are still alive.
In Jacksonville, the temperature was expected to drop 50 degrees, from about 80 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday to around 30 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday, putting it on the path to being one of the five coldest Christmas Days on record, according to the National Weather Service in Jacksonville.
A squall line with severe storms and fast-moving winds also was headed for north Florida on Christmas Eve.
HT/Willis E
Didn’t they make a movie about this? The night that iguanas fell or something? I’m struggling with aging memory and Christmas cheers, but I think it might have been called “Debbie Does Miami?”.
The Night of the Iguana
link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_of_the_Iguana_(film)
I guana know why this wonderful science site has allowed itself to be redecorated so it looks like some clickbate “news” site or maybe Hip Hop Nation! Not cool. But Merry Christmas anyway.
WUWT is all about keepin’ it real, so where’s the problem? Big Anthony is one cool cat you got to admit.
So, maybe we’ll get Emerald Green for St.Paddy’s Day ?
And, a discount card on a bottle of Connemara ?
Yes, I have to admit I’m not at all taken with the new team colours. The old colour scheme was much more sober and serious.
Red, even a deep red, makes it look more like a sensationalist tabloid newpaper, IMO. Though I do appreciate a lot of the other changes.
I guana know why this wonderful science site has allowed itself to be redecorated so it looks like some clickbait “news” site or maybe Hip Hop Nation! Not cool. But Merry Christmas anyway.
One of the big problems in our current society is people who think everyone else should do what they want.
If you don’t like this, you could start your own website.
That front came thru last evening up here in N. Florida. I was outside when it got here with a bang! I estimate 50-60 mph winds for 15 or 20 minutes with blowing hard rain.
Then drizzle mostly all night. Temp dropped from mid 70’s yesterday to the low 30s. But we don’t have any iguanas outside of terrariums that I know about up here. Too bad it does not freeze pythons. We do have Rhesus Monkies but they seem to be freeze proof.
My wife and I are spending a few days in Apalachicola, right in the west armpit of the Florida panhandle. We were on the waterfront when the squall came through.
It announced itself with lightening and a big clap of thunder. We managed to get under a walkway cover just as the rain hit. It came down in heavy sheets, blown nearly sideways by the high wind. Quite an experience for a west coast guy.
Happens almost every day in the afternoon during summer.
Catch it right and you can watch waterspouts.
Lots of iguanas here in Fort Lauderdale. The is a 4 footer the lives on the grounds, and a 3 footer and two little ones that live in the small city park next door providing public beach access. The little ones drop before the big ones simply due to thermal mass. Happens when the temperature goes below about 45F. Did not happen here on the ocean last night. Coldest at dawn was 52; now warmed up to 58. Probably did happen more inland.
Remember your umbrellas. Helps keeps the iguanas from dropping on your head. Have a Merry Christmas and a safe and sane New Year.
Have you been hit by a falling iguana?
Sue Exxon-Mobil for climate weirding. It seems to be the latest cottage industry gimmick for the ambulance chasers.
Florida voted Trump, so those red neck iguanas got it coming.
/sarc
They should check how the manatees are doing also if cold sets in
And the sea turtles. A big cold snap about a decade ago made them lethargic. Then the gulls started pecking their eyes.
North of Florida, just outside Atlanta, GA, we’ve had the coldest Christmas Day in 31 years. Much more of this and people will start considering global warming as wishful thinking, not a threat.
Recent?
I remember stories of Iguana’s falling the last time a good cold snap went through Florida. Even damaged the Orange harvest.
So they are expecting unexpectedly cold weather. That’s odd, at this time of the year we are usually expecting unexpectedly warm weather. Does that make this forecast and unprecedented precedent ?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/18/the-truth-behind-renewable-energy/#comment-3107407
Nino34 Index is now MINUS 1.2C – bundle up!
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/01/italy-experiences-the-coldest-september-in-50-years-with-snowfall/#comment-3095391
Patience, grasshopper! I prefer predictions that look forward in time. Much more difficult. 🙂
Cooling will initially be sporadic, as I have written many times over the years.
According to NOAA and today’s GWPF, La Nina has arrived.
thegwpf.com/la-nina-is-here-what-will-it-do-to-global-temperatures/
Told you in August 2020, earlier as well (Published 2002, updated 2013 and 2019 paper and … ):
wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/23/solar-plasma-temperature-is-plunging-should-we-worry/#comment-3068819
Check out NIno34 temperatures, again down to Minus 0.6C – winter will be cold. [now minus 0.8C]
THE REAL CLIMATE CRISIS IS NOT GLOBAL WARMING, IT IS COOLING, AND IT MAY HAVE ALREADY STARTED
By Allan M.R. MacRae and Joseph D’Aleo, October 27, 2019
wattsupwiththat.com/2019/10/27/the-real-climate-crisis-is-not-global-warming-it-is-cooling-and-it-may-have-already-started/
In winter 1973, I sailed a 26 foot sailboat from the Chesapeake to Palm Beach, FL. I was breaking ice every morning most of the way down, over two weeks, and, when it finally got above 45 deg F, I broke out shorts and t-shirts. My crew and I had minor frost bite on our cheeks and hands. That winter, many Floridians headed south to the Yucatan to escape the cold. Almost 50 years later, we are back to the same.
Did people start gathering up the stunned equanas and getting rid of them? Ya know? The whole “invasive species” disrupting the environment thingy? Bet all those boas and anacondas will be a lot easier to kill off in the cold, too. Think people! When life gives you lemons you freeze them rock soild and throw them back hard as you can.