TAMPA, Fla. — Time to think about grabbing those sweaters! Tampa may have one of the coolest days since last winter! 

If you have been watching us on Spectrum Bay News 9, you have heard our meteorologist mention the words “cold front” and “cool down” within range of the seven day.

So just how cold are we talking? Enough to put many of you in the holiday mood and perhaps convince some of you to turn that Mariah Carey song “All I Want For Christmas” up a bit sooner.

The United States is in a very cold pattern. Shots of Canadian air with Arctic origin have been penetrating the northern U.S., leading to winter weather across multiple states. Much of the Central and Eastern United States has been below average, except for Florida where out temperatures have been well above.

In October, Tampa averaged a temperature of 81.2 degrees which is nearly 5 degrees above average. Since the start of November, Tampa has been averaging nearly 5.4 degrees above normal. This is all about to change going into the next week.

There is plenty of cold air around, it just hasn’t made it this far south. A big part of that reason is due to high pressure blocking any fronts from surviving the journey to our city. The pattern over the next week suggests this will all change.

A strong high dives south from Canada with plenty of cold air associated with it. This surge of cold air will threaten a big freeze on parts of the Deep South. Widespread frosts and freezes are possible in states such as Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. In fact, some communities may see temperatures dip into the upper 20s in northern Alabama and the Tennessee Valley.

Nothing like that will head our way but the point is there is a lot of cold air nearby. The first cold front pushes south of Tampa late Friday and that will knock our temperatures into the upper 70s for highs for this weekend. It means we will be comfortable — not too hot and not too cold.

The big scale pattern remains similar into next week where the east will be cold. A series of cold fronts will dive south into Florida through next week. Indications point that Tampa will likely experience its coldest day since last January.

Our forecast for mid-next week suggests high temperatures in Tampa will be near 70 degrees. If this were to verify, it would be Tampa’s coldest high temperature since January, 31 when Tampa only managed to hit 66 degrees.  The following day, February 1, the high was 71 degrees which was also the coldest day for the month.

Now we can make the switch from Pumpkin Iced Coffee to Peppermint Mocha with the “cooler” weather heading our way.​