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Three-day blast of cold air could bring snow flurries

But the chill won't last too long - highs for Thursday afternoon are expected to reach the high 70s.

By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published February 13, 2006

INVERNESS - Admit it, we've been lucky this winter in Citrus County, at least with the weather. Even the lowest temperatures haven't been all that bad.

Our luck has changed, as a three-day blast of cold air that began Sunday night continues its sweep from the north, bringing along a plant-killing frost.

And, forecasters say, if anyone feels the need to venture out around daybreak Tuesday, look to the western skies. There may be something resembling snow flurries falling.

"The sky will look weird to most people, but to people from the north, it will look like a snow is on the way," said Barry Goldsmith, with the National Weather Service. "And it just might snow, especially along the Citrus coast. It will be very slight and might just be cold rain by the time it hits, but the conditions will be right."

The coldest nights of the winter are forecast to continue tonight and then again Tuesday night.

Forecasters say Crystal River and the other Citrus County gulf communities will see lows around 26 degrees tonight, with patchy frost. Tuesday night will not be as bad, with a low of 31, according to the National Weather Service in Tampa.

It will be colder inland. Inverness is expected to see lows around 22 tonight, with areas of frost beginning around 1 a.m. Tuesday. The lows Tuesday night and Wednesday morning will be around 30.

"This isn't anything unusual," Goldsmith said. "And we're lucky in one respect in that this is not arctic air, which would have been much colder."

Veteran vegetable growers, such as Jim Collette, farm manager of Ferris Groves in Floral City, will be monitoring the company's 83-acre strawberry crop, with a finger on the water nozzle. The strawberries are nearing ripeness.

"From what the forecasters are saying, I'll probably have to turn on the sprinklers tonight," he said. "But it's just something that we make a call on during the night by being out there, observing the conditions."

The Ferris Groves managers will be in the fields, measuring the various factors such as relative humidity and dew point and calculating how many more hours of dark remain. Then they will make a judgment call on whether to turn on the sprinklers, which protect the strawberries by encasing them in a layer of ice, he said.

Incredibly, by Thursday, afternoon highs are expected to reach the high 70s.

--Jorge Sanchez can be reached at 860-7313 or e-mail at sanchez@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 13, 2006, 00:45:19]