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Highlands Today

Cold weather expected to bring relief

Jasmina Meyer, Highlands Today

Heather Mahaffey, co-owner of the Dairy Queen of South Sebring, makes a chocolate milkshake for a customer on Monday.

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: November 3, 2009

SEBRING - After having survived what was the eighth or ninth hottest October in Florida's recorded history (dating back to the 1890s), it looks like there is some cooler weather on the horizon, according to the National Weather Service in Ruskin.

A cold front just to the south of us will mean some light showers in central and south Florida, leading to low clouds and patchy fog, said meteorologist Colleen Rhea.

Today's outlook calls for partly sunny skies with a 20 percent chance of showers, with highs in the lower 80s and north winds about 10 mph. This evening will be partly cloudy, then skies will clear.

"Once that stationary front moves, we'll see cooler, drier air into the week," she said.

Rhea said low temperatures will be in the upper 60s to low 70s.

Dan Mahaffey is owner of Dairy Queen of South Sebring, located at 3359 U.S. 27 S., across from Captain D's Seafood.

It may sound odd at first that Mahaffey said he's glad to see the hot weather go away even though it has helped his fall ice cream sales.

"Hot weather does increase our ice cream sales," Mahaffey said Monday. "They are up, our ice cream sales, anything with ice cream. But our food sales have been about the same. It's been slow.

"We used to get a lot of construction workers in here but they're not working, so I don't see them as much."
Mahaffey said he's glad to see the snowbirds returning because they'll give a much needed boost to his overall sales, including ice cream.

"I wish they would stay all year long," he said.
Logan Johnson is a long-term forecaster in Ruskin. He was the go-to guy to get information beyond the seven-day forecast.

He said a low pressure system in Canada should move across the eastern portion of the United States, bringing in a reinforcing shot of cooler air by Friday and Saturday.

Looking ahead eight to 14 days, there is a high likelihood of below-normal temperatures for Florida, extending to Nov. 15, said Johnson.

Will we see a cold Christmas?

"We're expecting an El Nino winter this year, so we're expecting temperatures to be below normal at that time, December, January and February," he said. "But for any given day, it's tough (to predict)."

That far out, generalities are about as good as meteorology at its present state can get, he said.

Highlands Today reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com.

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