El Niño / La Niña Local Effect on Freezes

Freeze data was broken up by month and by event, based on the locally derived El Niño/La Niña yearly anomalies, for four stations in west central and southwest Florida: Tampa, Lakeland, Sarasota-Bradenton, and Fort Myers. Freezes per year for the stations are linked below.

Tampa Freezes Per Year By Category Lakeland Freezes Per Year by Category Sarasota-Bradenton Freezes Per Year By Category Fort Myers Freezes Per Year By Category

As the results show, freezes occur more often than normal in February during strong El Niño years. Interestingly enough there are also above normal freezes in February during strong La Niña events in the central part of the state.

For the strong El Niño events, the likely cause for the greater than normal amount of freezes in February is the abnormally strong storms that pass through and to the north of Florida. This causes cold air to be dragged southward behind the storms into the state (advective freezes).

For the strong La Niña events, the likely cause is radiational cooling under clear skies with calm wind conditions (radiational freezes).