Coldest temperatures of the season? What the ‘Saskatchewan screamer’ means for South Florida

Kimberly Miller, Palm Beach Post
·4 min read
A man walks along Lake Avenue as an afternoon deluge from northeasterly storm clouds swamped the Dixie Highway corridor Tuesday in Lake Worth Beach.
A man walks along Lake Avenue as an afternoon deluge from northeasterly storm clouds swamped the Dixie Highway corridor Tuesday in Lake Worth Beach.

Repeat cool fronts are pushing toward the Sunshine State with a mellow chill Friday chased by the whipping tail of a Saskatchewan screamer.

The screamer, a winter wallop originating out of the Canadian province east of Alberta, could drop snow as far south as Georgia but will likely mean a wet Sunday for much of the Peninsula.

It will be preceded by a punchy front Thursday that is expected to scrub away South Florida’s drear and drizzle, making way for mostly sunny skies Friday and Saturday with chilly morning temperatures in the upper 40s inland and low 50s at the coast.

“We’ll have a little bit of a recovery Saturday and then another reinforcing front of drier cooler air Sunday,” said Miami-based National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Garcia. “That will mean another chilly start Monday and Tuesday.”

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Tuesday morning temps could dip to 50 degrees along coastal Palm Beach County. If that holds true in West Palm Beach, it would be the coolest temperature this year, but tie the season's low temperature recorded Dec. 23.

It’s also a noteworthy cuff of cool air following a year where Florida had its eighth warmest in 127 years of records, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Florida’s average temperature of 72.3 degrees in 2021 was 2.2 degrees warmer than the mean base period of 1901 to 2000.

Martin and St. Lucie counties finished 2021 as their seventh warmest year on record.

Palm Beach County had its eighth warmest year in 2021, with an average temperature of 75.8. West Palm Beach had its sixth warmest with an average temperature of 77.4.

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“Overall, the warmer and drier influence of La Niña was probably most noticeable during the first part of the year when impacts tend to be more pronounced,” said Robert Molleda, NWS warning coordinating meteorologist in Miami. “The first four to five months of the year were noticeably dry, then it was closer to normal for the rest of the year but not enough to compensate for the dry beginning.”

West Palm Beach finished 2021 with 54 inches of rain, about 7.6 inches below normal.

South Florida Water Management District measurements show coastal Palm Beach County down nearly 11 inches of rain for 2021. The Treasure Coast finished with a 7.5-inch deficit.

A truck navigated standing water as an afternoon deluge from northeasterly storm clouds swamped the Dixie Highway corridor north of 10th Avenue North Tuesday in Lake Worth Beach.
A truck navigated standing water as an afternoon deluge from northeasterly storm clouds swamped the Dixie Highway corridor north of 10th Avenue North Tuesday in Lake Worth Beach.

How much rain did Palm Beach County get Tuesday?

Mother Nature tried to make up for shortchanges on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning with more than 3 inches of rain measured in areas of Delray Beach.

“We’ve had this front that just stuck around and has been giving us gloomy weather. There just wasn’t dry air behind it,” Garcia said.

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Paul Walker, a senior meteorologist with Pennsylvania-based AccuWeather, said a wet Sunday will be followed by a cool shot from the Saskatchewan screamer. The more traditional starting point for the flood of cool Canadian air is Alberta, hence the nickname Alberta clipper.

“It’s just another way to describe a storm track that dives down through the Midwest and moves east and northeast,” Walker said. “It should bring pretty nice weather through the state Monday and Tuesday, but it will probably be cool for you folks in South Florida.”

The Southern Palm Beach County experienced heavy rainfall late Tuesday into Wednesday that triggered a flash flood warning for Boynton Beach through Boca Raton. Some of the heaviest rainfall totals were in Delray Beach.

  • Delray Beach, 3.08 inches

  • Ocean Ridge, 2.26 inches

  • Boynton Beach, 1.99 inches

  • Boca West, 1.25 inches

  • Boca Raton, 1.11 inches

Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers weather, climate and the environment and has a certificate in Weather Forecasting from Penn State. Contact Kim at kmiller@pbpost.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cold fronts may bring coolest temperatures of season to South Florida