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Actually Florida (as well as Texas) got even colder in the December 1989 freeze, I believe Miami Beach hit the freezing mark for the first time.
Oh ! I must have missed it then.
I remember they said on the news it was a record low in 30 years. I suppose the news meant it was a record low for consecutively long period (4 or 5 days in a roll, then a break for a few days, then another 4 or 5 days in a roll).
Actually Florida (as well as Texas) got even colder in the December 1989 freeze, I believe Miami Beach hit the freezing mark for the first time.
Just checked Wunderground's stats.
Dec 24 or 25 1989:
7C/44F Key West (tropical zone)
0C/32F Naples (tropical zone)
-1C/30F Miami (tropical zone)
-1C/30F Ft Lauderdale (tropical zone)
-2C/28F West Palm Beach (tropical zone)
-2C/28F Fort Myers (marginally tropical zone, bordering subtropical zone)
-4C/25F Tampa (subtropical zone)
-5C/23F Fort Pierce just North of Port St Lucie (subtropical zone, bordering tropical zone)
-6C/21F Daytona Beach (subtropical zone)
-6C/21F Orlando (subtropical zone)
-8C/18F Jacksonville (subtropical zone)
Dec 23 1989:
Subtropical zone, no where near tropical zone
-8C/17F Brownsville
-11C/12F Corpus Christi
-13C/9F Houston (someone claimed Houston tropical, does it sound tropical to you ?)
There is a misconception that because Brownsville gets less rainfall, that its a dryer climate than Miami. Brownsville is humid most of the time and the heat index rutinely reaches 105 and many times over 110 for long stretches during summer months. And summer can happen from late March to almost November. I would guess that the Rio Grande Valley has the highest average heat index of anywhere in the US during those months. Its really difficult to enjoy any kind of outdoor activity when its this hot day after day.
Winters are nice in Brownsville but you can have stretches of a couple days where the temperature can be in the 40's in the afternoon with a cold north wind. In an average year, you might have 5 to 10 days in Brownsville that could be considered chilly and a couple days like that in Miami. A vast majority of the time both places are in the 70's and 80's in the winter. Pretty close to a wash.
I think that South Padre Island would be a better comparison to Miami since both are right on the coast. Being 30 miles inland Brownsville gets the worst of both worlds in the summer. All the humidity from the gulf and the hotter temperatures from being farther inland.
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