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Cold days to yield to wet weekend
By RYAN MALDONADO and BABITA PERSAUD
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 1, 2002
Hang up the winter coats and get ready for umbrella weather.
After two days of some of Florida's coldest weather in decades, forecasters predict a warmer and wetter weekend. Temperatures will rise into the 70s today and through the weekend, with showers and isolated thunderstorms expected Saturday and Sunday.
"I wouldn't say what's happening is unusual," said Richard Rude, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Ruskin. "It seemed like winter yesterday."
The cold front that hit Central and North Florida early Thursday morning broke several records. In Tallahassee, the mercury dropped to 18, the city's coldest mark since 1935.
The Panhandle city of Crestview, sometimes called the icebox of Florida, recorded the lowest temperature in the state -- 14 degrees.
"Freezing temperatures in Crestview is not uncommon," said Chief Maxie Barrow of the Crestview police. "If 14 degrees hit Miami, it would probably shut the city down, but we're pretty functional here."
In the Tampa Bay area, temperatures dropped to the mid 30s, but power companies and farmers reported no big problems. Some emergency cold shelters remained open Thursday night.
Florida Power reported minimal damage as 3,500 customers in Pinellas County experienced minor power outages early Thursday. TECO, which serves most of Hillsborough County, said no failures were reported.
"The real test would have been (Thursday) morning, before dawn, when people start turning on their heat and cranking up their stoves," said TECO spokesman Ross Bannister.
The effect on crops was minimal, said John Stickles, general manager of Florida Pacific Farms on Moores Lake Road near Dover. Workers there sprayed water on strawberries late Wednesday, forming a protective coating of ice on about 200 acres of young and near-ripe fruit, Stickles said.
The cold did cause some inconvenience at Cape Canaveral. Temperatures there fell to 35 degrees, delaying the launch of the shuttle Columbia.
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