Tampa’s First Dose of Cold Weather

All through hurricane season, all we wished for was one cold weather spell. Just a few days without that high temps and humidity would have felt so good. Hurricane season in Florida ended last week. Long gone is that oppressive heat. And for those who wanted a break from that sticky weather, you know what they say. Be careful what ya wish for. Temperatures this morning in the Tampa area were in the 40s. And that's not even as low as it will go this week. Get ready for some really cold weather midweek.

We probably won't hit 70 degrees in the Tampa area again until we get closer to the weekend. Today and tomorrow (December 2), temperatures in most parts of Florida will top out in the mid 60s. Mornings will be extra chilly. In fact, we'll be in the 40s again when you wake up tomorrow morning. Then on Wednesday, the really big chill moves in as some parts of Central Florida will dip into the 30s! It's unlikely we'll get below freezing, but still... that's pretty close.

Thursday is the day when you'll see some big changes. Both Thursday and Friday we'll rebound with temps in the low 70s. Then this weekend we're back to more Florida like weather with sunshine and temperatures in the mid 70s.

During hurricane season, ABC Action News Chief Meteorologist Denis Phillips talked tropical storm and hurricane categories with Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene. For this week, on his official Facebook page today, Denis has issued an official "Snuggle Alert." So plan accordingly. These cold spells don't get assigned names like the tropical storms and hurricanes do. So let's just go with Frosty. Yeah that works.

Goodbye Milton. And don't come back. The weather in Tampa Bay this week has been perfect. It's such a stark contrast to what we saw last week as Hurricane Milton tore through Florida. Lives were lost. The lives not lost were forever changed.

The forecast this week calls not only for sunny skies, but cooler temperatures. In fact, morning temps this week could dip in the 50s in the northern areas of Tampa Bay as a cold front dips down into Florida. After the past month we've had with Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, we have earned it.

Below are some of the Hurricane Milton photos our talented photographers captured in Tampa, St. Pete, Clearwater and other parts of Florida during Milton's unwelcome visit.

We'll never forget seeing the roof of Tropicana Field being torn off section by section in the middle of the night. Other incredible images you'll see below in this "Goodbye Milton" photo gallery include overturned planes, cars buried in sand and a new local celebrity named “Lieutenant Dan." He's the newest "A Florida Man."

As schools in our area begin to reopen, the lights come back on, the buzzing of air conditioners returns, and gas station lines become reasonable again, we hope it's another 103 years before another hurricane like Milton comes by again. But for now the recovery begins. We made it through Hurricane Milton. And fortunately the next couple storms are staying far away from Florida.

While some of these Hurricane Milton photos bring back terrible memories of Milton's night of chaos, I definitely encourage you to hang in there until the end. Spencer Platt captured a great moment on Clearwater Beach that shows our Florida resiliency. Hurricane Milton did a number on us. But living in Florida, we know we're rolling the dice to live in Paradise.