As storms grip nation, Bermuda High keeps South Florida warm
As bitter cold air, snow, ice and power outages grip a huge swath of the nation, South Florida is claiming bragging rights as the only place to find summer this week.
And the warmth is likely to stick around for a while. Unlike many of this season’s previous winter storms north of us, the cool air won’t seep into our area this time.
We have a Bermuda High to thank for that.
“We’ve been dominated by an area of high pressure off of the western Atlantic that’s been pretty much keeping the warm temperatures here and not allowing the cold front to really dip down,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Chuck Caracozza.
It’s the same year-round weather phenomenon that blocks hurricanes from South Florida — this time it’s protecting us from one of the worst bouts of winter weather in years.
More than 100 million people in the U.S. live in areas that were covered by some type of winter weather warning, watch or advisory on Wednesday, as yet another winter storm aimed at Texas and other
parts of the southern Plains, the National Weather Service said.
At least 20 people have died, some while struggling to find warmth inside their homes. In the Houston area, one family succumbed to carbon monoxide from car exhaust in their garage; another perished as they used a fireplace to keep warm.
Nearly 3 million customers remained without power early Wednesday in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, more than 200,000 more in four Appalachian states, and nearly that many in the Pacific Northwest, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outage reports.
Even two of the nation’s other winter refuges — Phoenix and San Diego — are being cooled down because of the polar vortex.
South Florida is the nation’s only hot spot.
When the Bermuda High shifts to our west — as it has recently — cold fronts from the north run into it like a wall and warm, tropical air flows in from the south.
When the high pressure is east of Florida, the door is open to the cold.
“That’s kind of what we had in December and in January when we had that really nice cold stretch here for us,” said Phil Ferro, chief meteorologist at WSVN-TV (Channel 7). “That was one of those moments where the high-pressure system moves away and allow colder air to move into our area.”
Although baseball spring training begins this week — usually an indication the cold-weather threat has subsided for South Florida — we’re not totally safe from one or two more chills.
“We’ve had cold outbreaks last into the beginning of April, at times,” Caracozza said. “We certainly still can potentially have more over the next several weeks.”
In fact, a cold front is due to arrive Friday evening and drive low temperatures into the 50s in Broward and Miami-Dade and daytime highs into the mid-70s. But highs in the 80s should return early next week.
The polar vortex has been particularly deadly in areas of the country that aren’t used to freezing air, leaving them unprepared.
Ferro says it’s highly unlikely South Florida would ever see such a deep freeze.
“Obviously, the farther south it goes, the warmer it gets,” Ferro said. “And even once it’s here we’re so close to the tropics, and we have the trade winds impacting the Caribbean, which in turn could send more warm air our way. There’s a lot of things that could work against that.
“It’s not an impossibility. But the chances of us getting freezing temperatures or below freezing temperatures for any stretch of time is a very, very difficult event for us to look at. So many things are working against it that it’s rare for us to see it.”