Florida weather forecast: Cold front, falling iguanas
KNOWN for its warm, balmy winters, the US state of Florida is expecting an unusually chilly Christmas this year, and with that comes a phenomenon peculiar to the Sunshine State – falling iguanas.
“Low temperatures in the 30s/40s and falling iguanas are possible. Keep up with forecast changes and stay warm!” the National Weather Service’s Miami office said on Twitter on December 21.
That means residents of southern Florida will have to swap their shorts and T-shirts for warmer attire for a few days and keep an eye on the sky for frozen reptiles falling from the palm trees.
When the temperature drops below 4 degrees Celsius the coldblooded lizards are immobilised and fall from the trees they live in, the forecasters said.
The creatures do not die from the cold, but simply remain unable to move until the temperatures rise again.
And the danger of being hit by a frozen reptile are real, given how many of the invasive species now live in Florida, devastating the native flora.
Last year local authorities actually asked people to kill as many of the reptiles as they could, though preferably humanely.
In 2018, the southeastern state already experienced iguana showers in a cold snap, astounding the population.
Some loca ls tried warming up t he stricken lizards with blankets, took them home or put them in t heir cars to resuscitate t hem, something t he aut horities strongly adv ise against.
Once they d e f r o s t e d , reptiles may d e f e n d a r e t h e try to t h e m - selves and become aggressive.