Florida gets help from new warming trend

MIAMI -- Bright sunshine across most of the state Saturday helped temperatures begin climbing back toward normal across Florida after two days of freezing weather that citrus growers had feared could damage their $9 billion-a-year crop.

Growers said Saturday they were largely spared significant crop damage.

"We actually dodged a major bullet," said Shawn Crocker, a spokesman for the Florida Strawberry Growers Association. "I don't think we're going to see any catastrophic damage."

The National Weather Service posted another freeze warning across northern Florida for late Saturday and early Sunday; however, the cold wasn't expected to be as sharp as it was Friday, when temperatures hit the low teens in some areas and snow flakes flew along parts of the Atlantic coast.

There were record low temperatures again Saturday for the second day in a row, including 32 degrees at Lakeland and Melbourne, 36 at Vero Beach and 38 at St. Petersburg, said meteorologist Rob Handel of the National Weather Service in Miami. On Friday, record lows included 37 at Miami and 33 at West Palm Beach.

No freezing temperatures were reported Saturday or late Friday in South Florida, Handel said.

And in the north, the mercury rose 18 degrees in the two hours after sunrise Saturday, reaching 37 at Tallahassee and 39 at Jacksonville. By afternoon, the temperatures there were in the upper 40s.

Florida's warming trend was expected to continue into Sunday, reaching the upper 50s in northern Florida and near 70 in the south, Handel said.

The arctic weather system that brought the cold air to Florida also plunged temperatures into the single digits Friday across the Tennessee Valley Authority's seven-state service area, creating record demand for the public utility's electricity.

Up to a foot of snow fell Thursday in parts of North Carolina, followed by near- or below-zero temperatures and wind chills there that closed most schools for two days. At least three deaths were blamed on the cold.