Cuba just had its first freeze on record, and other records were smashed from the Bahamas to Central America from the same cold outbreak that left Florida and the eastern U.S. shivering last weekend.
On Tuesday morning, the Indio Hatuey weather station in Perico, Cuba, reported a low of 32 degrees,a new national all-time record low, according to Cuba's weather service, the Instituto de MeteorologÃa Cuba (INSMET). The previous record of 33 degrees was set in Bainoa almost 30 years ago on Feb. 18, 1996.
Frost was apparently seen on crops around the weather station, according to a Tuesday Facebookpostfrom INSMET.
Other Cuba Records
It appears four other stations in Cuba tied or set new all-time record lows in this cold snap, according to INSMET and weather records expert Maximiliano Herrera:
- Aguada de Passengeros: 37 degrees (3 degrees Celsius)
- Jucarito and Santa Cruz del Sur: 44 degrees (6.8 degrees Celsius)
- Guantanamo Bay: 57 degrees (13.9 degrees Celsius) tied
Six other weather stations tied or set new February records, ranging from 43 to 46 degrees.
More Cold Records
Cuba wasn't the only place shivering.
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On Sunday, the high in Freeport, Bahamas, reached only 51 degrees, thecoldest high temperature on record anywhere in the Bahamas, according to Herrera. That's more typical of early February in Nashville, over 800 miles northwest of Freeport.
Herrera also foundFlores, Guatemala, tied its all-time record low of 48 degrees, while a mountain station (Finca Los Andes, elevation about 5,500 feet) in western El Salvador set its February record of 38 degrees.
Belizehad its coldest low since 1968, dropping to 42 degrees, Herrera noted.
Cold Fronts Aren't Unusual
This was from the same cold outbreak that smashed records in the eastern U.S., from Ohio and Pennsylvania toFlorida and the Southeast.
But winter's arctic cold fronts often don't stop once plowing through Florida.
The Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and Belize are usually close enough to the U.S. to witness a few cold fronts make it that far south each winter, plowing southward from the Gulf into the western Caribbean Sea.
Last Saturday was theeighth such cold front of the season in Cuba, according to INSMET, accompanied by40- to 50-mph wind gusts.
These winds pushed water from the Gulf into the waterfront in Havana on Sunday, crashing over the seawall and flooding several city streets.
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 onBluesky,X (formerly Twitter)andFacebook.
