Climate in Jacksonville

During winter, there can be hard freezes during the night. Such cold weather is usually short lived, as the city averages only 10 to 15 nights at or below freezing and around 5 days where the high does not rise above 50 °F (10 °C). The coldest temperature recorded at Jacksonville International Airport was 7 °F (−14 °C) on January 21, 1985, which continues to hold the lowest temperature on record for many locations in the southeastern U.S. Even rarer in Jacksonville than freezing temperatures is snow. When snow does fall, it usually melts upon making contact with the ground. Most residents of Jacksonville can remember accumulated snow on only two occasions—-the first was a thin ground cover that occurred December 23, 1989. The second event happened on December 26, 2010, when measurable snow fell for the first time in 21 years across metropolitan Jacksonville. Occurring in the morning, it also marked the first time since 1989 that the official National Weather Service recording equipment at Jacksonville International picked up frozen precipitation.

Jacksonville has suffered less damage from hurricanes than most other east coast cities, although the threat does exist for a direct hit by a major hurricane. The city has only received one direct hit from a hurricane since 1871; however, Jacksonville has experienced hurricane or near-hurricane conditions more than a dozen times due to storms crossing the state from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, or passing to the north or south in the Atlantic and brushing past the area. The strongest effect on Jacksonville was from Hurricane Dora in 1964, the only recorded storm to hit the First Coast with sustained hurricane force winds. The eye crossed St. Augustine with winds that had just barely diminished to 110 mph (180 km/h), making it a strong