Miami is shattering heat records during a wildly-warm start to 2020 – Most of Florida has endured record heat in the past four weeks

By Matthew Cappucci
15 April 2020

(The Washington Post) – Florida is supposed to be warm. After all, it’s, well, Florida. But temperatures in the Sunshine State have been shattering records and rivaling typical readings during the heart of summer. Miami even endured its earliest heat wave on record last week, when it hit at least 90 degrees on three consecutive days.

Meteorologists are calling the heat “ridiculous,” “brutal” and “a cruel joke.”

Miami’s temperature climbed to 95 on Friday, at a time of year when average highs are 83. To date, this April has been the city’s hottest on record coming after its second-warmest March. The heat goes back further, too; this has been Miami’s warmest start to the year in its 83-year history of bookkeeping, according to Brian McNoldy, Capital Weather Gang’s Miami-based tropical weather expert.

But Miami is not alone. Records have been falling faster than cold-stunned iguanas across the Florida Peninsula. Orlando broke a nearly century-old record high on Monday, the mercury soaring to a brutal 97 degrees. Daytona Beach hit 94, while Melbourne peaked at 96. Heat indexes, a “feels like” product of temperature and humidity, spiked well into the triple digits.

Practically the entirety of Florida has endured its hottest mid-March to mid-April on record.

The heat milestones keep mounting.

Miami recorded its seventh day so far this year in the 90s on Tuesday. In an average year, Miami would have only hit 90 once by this point in the year; the frequency of 90 degree days to date also claimed a record, McNoldy said in an email.

Miami’s highs of 94 and 95 degrees on April 9 and 10 respectively are even more impressive, considering that some years — like 2018 — pass without the city nicking 95 degrees even through the summer months, McNoldy said. It’s the earliest in the year that Miami has hit 95 degrees on record.

“This past week in #Miami has been more like 4th of July than Easter temps!,” tweeted Eric Blake, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center. [more]

Miami is shattering heat records during a wildly-warm start to 2020, even by Florida standards