An unidentified person wraps completely up in a blanket while sitting on a bench on Kennedy Blvd. in downtown Tampa today. (Photo By: JAY NOLAN / The Tampa Tribune)

By JAN HOLLINGSWORTH, JO-ANN JOHNSTON, AND CHRIS CHMURA

TAMPA - The mercury fell this morning, but not quite as far as forecasters had thought it would.

Only a few locations fell to 32 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The forecast originally called for temperatures in the 20s and included a freeze warning for every county on the Suncoast, with the exception of Sarasota County.

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According to the weather service, the temperature in Tampa dropped to a low of 39 degrees today. That reading was observed at 5:22 a.m.

Storm Team 8 Meteorologist John Winter says mid- and upper-level clouds streaming from the Gulf of Mexico helped sustain warmer conditions this morning.

“This acts as a blanket as it passes by,” Winter said. “Those clouds will continue to move in and out of the Bay area today.”

Farmers who had been fixed on falling thermometers overnight are now breathing a sigh of relief that the mercury didn’t plummet below freezing.

Farmer Mike St. Martin may have lost a night’s sleep, but he didn’t lose his crop and that was just fine by the Plant City berry grower.
“The coldest it probably got was down to 38 degrees because the clouds moved in,” he said.

Clear skies could have brought temperatures as much as 10 degrees lower based on the forecast, a devastating prospect at the height of berry production for area farmers.
The cloud cover also protected the area’s maturing citrus crop.

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“We came through real well,” said Rusty Wiygul, director of grower operations for Florida Citrus Mutual. “There’s no fruit damage and no tree damage,” Wiygul said.
The citrus harvest began in December and will continue into March or later, depending on the growing conditions.

Zucchini, squash, lettuce and other crops also were threatened by the predicted freeze in West Central Florida. But in Plant City, the place that bills itself as the world’s winter strawberry capital, the weather over the next few weeks can make or break the season.

“Everything’s OK for this go-round anyway,” St. Martin said of the almost-freeze. “We don’t know if there’s another one building out there, though.”

WFLA’s John Winter is calling for a high around 60 degrees this afternoon and slightly warmer low temperatures for tomorrow. There has been no freeze warning issued for this evening, Winter notes.

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By Thursday, Winter predicts Tampa Bay will be back in the mid-70s. The normal high for this time of year is 71, according to The national Weather Service.

Stay with TBO.com for developments.

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