Arctic Cold Blast Across The Southeast Was One Of Coldest So Early In Season, Including Florida

Gatlinburg Transforms Into A Winter Wonderland

A cold outbreak plunged through the Midwest, Northeast and deep into the South, with freezing temperatures that were among the coldest so early in the season in Florida and other Southeast states.

This cold blast first arrived in the Midwest and Plains states from Nov. 7-8, then took a nosedive into the South on Nov. 9, with the coldest air in place from Nov. 10 through the morning of Nov. 12.

Along the way, it generated some first snowfalls of the season in the Great Lakes snowbelts, Appalachians and interior Northeast, including areas as far south as Atlanta and the coastal Carolinas.

How Many Records?

There were at least 93 daily cold records — including both daily record lows and cold highs — tied or set during this cold snap from Nov. 9-12, according to the National Weather Service. As you can see in the dot map below, the large majority of those were in the Southeast.

Among Coldest So Early

The coldest conditions of the outbreak happened on Veterans Day in the Southeast, with the most anomalously cold, or below average, temperatures anywhere on Earth that day.

Freezing temperatures were reported along parts of the northern Gulf Coast into northern Florida.

Thirties were reported as far south as Immokalee, Florida, upper 40s were reported in the Ft. Lauderdale and Miami metros, and middle to upper 50s chilled the Upper and Middle Florida Keys, respectively.

(MORE: Florida Cold = Falling Iguanas?)

Records were tied for the coldest so early in the season in Fort Myers, Florida (42), Melbourne, Florida (37), and Gulfport, Mississippi (27). However, each of the dates each city tied for happened at least one week earlier in the calendar than this Veterans Day cold.

Key West, Florida (58), had its coldest morning so early in the fall since 1966.

Charleston, South Carolina (29), Jacksonville, Florida (28), and Savannah, Georgia (28), had their coldest morning so early in the season since 1976.

Mobile, Alabama (28), Pensacola, Florida (31), and Tampa, Florida (38), each had their coldest morning this soon in fall since 1993.

Orlando, Florida (36), tied for second coldest/earliest low, with Nov. 3, 1954 (36), and behind only Nov. 10, 1913 (35).

Other Notables

- Pellston, Michigan: 12 degrees (Nov. 9)

- Huntsville, Alabama: 21 degrees (Nov. 11)

- Waco, Texas: 29 degrees (Nov. 10) (tie)

- Miami, Florida: 48 degrees (Nov. 11) (tie)

Several cities also tied or set new daily record cold high temperatures, including:

- Buffalo, New York: 29 degrees (Nov. 10) (tie)

- Cincinnati (Covington, KY): 31 degrees (Nov. 10) (tie)

- Chattanooga, Tennessee: 39 degrees (Nov. 10) (tie)

- Daytona Beach, Florida: 55 degrees (Nov. 11)

There was one other weather oddity during this outbreak.

The coldest temperatures anywhere in the Lower 48 states on Veterans Day was a 3-degree reading at Mt. LeConte, in the Smoky Mountains 6 miles southeast of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

According to the National Weather Service, that's the first time the Lower 48's daily low has occurred in the southern Appalachians in NOAA records tracking this since 2011.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.