Tampa sets record low temperature

TAMPA - If you thought it was colder than ever overnight, you were right. This morning, Tampa set a new record low for today's date.

The old record for October 19 was 51, set all the way back in 1927.  This morning it dropped to 48 at Tampa International Airport, site of the city's official thermometer.

"In fact, we shattered the old record," offered FOX 13 meteorologist Howard Shapiro. "Usually you beat a record, you do it by a degree, maybe. So far we've beaten it by three degrees."

As expected, the coolest areas were to the north. The Panhandle was under a frost warning for the early morning hours, while the coldest spot in the Bay Area was Lecanto with 39 degrees.

You can thanks -- or blame -- a high pressure system over the southeast was sending all this dry air down to Florida from the cold north.

"This is very dry air," Shapiro explained. "The thing about dry air is it loses heat rapidly at night. But it also gains heat rapidly during the day."

Because of that, the temperature should be back in 70s by this afternoon, and back into the 80s by Wednesday.