An Arctic blast brought temperature to the teens in many Tampa Bay area communities on this day, Dec. 13, 60 years ago. 

Saint Petersburg also saw its coldest temperature on record with a low of 22 degrees. Several other towns saw temperatures in the teens. Brooksville was the coldest in the area at 15 degrees. Temperatures dropped down into the low to mid-20s as far south as Sarasota. 

The setup was perfect for a cold air outbreak in the southeast. The jet stream dipped far to the south in the eastern United States and far to the north in the western U.S.. The jet stream is a fast and narrow upper level wind that divides cold air to the north and warm air to the south.

This is what we call an amplified jet stream. It is normal to have undulations in the jet stream, but one this big is uncommon and can cause huge temperatures extremes. In fact, while Florida was dealing with record cold, Medford, Oregon, broke its record high of the month on Dec. 14, with a temperature of 72 degrees.  

The temperature stayed below 70 degrees in Tampa between Dec. 6 and Dec. 14. After setting a record low of 18 in the morning on Dec. 13, the high only reached 44 that afternoon. 

However, as us Florida residents know, cold air never sticks around for very long here, even in colder than normal winters. Tampa saw highs in the 70s for most of the second half of December that year. It even hit 80 degrees on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.