By Lissette Gonzalez, CBS4

Unless you spent this winter somewhere else, you know it was chilly, at least by South Florida standards. Now, with the data in, the National Weather Service has made it official. The first 3 months of the year were the coldest ever reported in Miami Beach, Naples, and West Palm Beach, and was among the coldest winters ever for Ft. Lauderdale and Miami.

That information was included in an analysis of winter weather patterns conducted by the National Weather Service weather forecast office in Miami.

Forecasters said March set record cold readings for Miami Beach, which was 5.8 degrees colder than normal, on average, and for Naples, where the average temperature was almost a degree colder than the previous record.

Forecasters say, overall, there were only a handful of days where temperatures were above normal in South Florida.

Miami temperatures averaged almost 5 degrees below normal, making the January-March period the 9th coldest ever, while Ft. Lauderdale had it’s 4th coldest period ever.

While the cold weather of winter appears to be over, that doesn’t mean South Florida won’t continue to see cooler-than-normal temperatures, according to the National Weather Service.

Their outlook claims cooler than normal coastal water temperatures in Florida will combine with the continued “El Nino” weather pattern to likely keep April temperatures below the norm.

The May forecast sees temperatures closer to normal, but that comes with the likelihood rainfall will be greater than normal. All of South Florida also saw an increase in rainfall when compared to previous years, but West Palm Beach, with almost 11 inches of rainfall in March, saw it’s 5th wettest march ever. Miami Beach, with just over 4 inches of rain in March, saw it’s 9th wettest March ever. See story here.

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Longest Below 80F Streak in many Southern Locations
NWS

High temperature of 80 degrees today ends record-breaking streak of below 80 days at 105 at the Jacksonville international airport. It still remains the coldest start to a calendar year in Jacksonville climate history. Today, the maximum temperature at Jacksonville International Airport reached 80 degrees. The last time the temperature reached 80 degrees was on December 15th, 2009. This streak is ranked first for the longest stretch of days without reaching 80 degrees since records began at the airport in 1948.

In addition...across southeast Georgia...Saint Simons Island and Alma have both set new records for consecutive days below 80 degrees. In fact it has been 5 months since either site has reached 80 degrees...last year on October 31st, 2009. Including today...the 151 consecutive day streak below 80 degrees breaks the old record of 146 days set at Alma in the winter of 1969-70...and ties the old record of 151 days at Saint Simons Island set in the winter of 1968-69.

Record of consecutive days of daily high temperatures below 80 degrees has ended in Shreveport, Louisiana on Wednesday, March 31st. As part of the very cold late fall and winter experienced across the four state region, high temperatures have failed to reach 80 degrees in Shreveport, LA since last doing so on October 15th, 2009, where the high temperature reached 84 degrees. This resulted in a record 166 consecutive day streak being set Tuesday, March 30th, 2010, surpassing the old record of 165 days ending on March 27th, 1924. Nearby Texarkana, AR (records since 1892) has a record of 174 days below 80F, through 3/31/2010 (new record: began 10/9/2009 still ongoing.) El Dorado set a record of 172 days beating out the 166 days in 1987.