An arctic blast will send lows plummeting into the 50s for the Fort Myers area and bring the coldest temperatures Southwest Florida has experienced in more than six months.
The cold front is partly responsible for steering dangerous Hurricane Melissa away from Florida.
Melissa is a deadly Category 5 hurricane and is expected to become to worst hurricane in Jamaica’s history before it travels north to Cuba, over the Bahamas and then out and into the Atlantic Ocean.
“There’s an upper level trough that’s steering Melissa east of Florida, and it’s allowing the cold front to come through during the week,” said Tyler Fleming, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, or NWS, in Ruskin, the office that covers the Fort Myers-Sanibel area. “Southwest Florida hasn’t experienced lows in the 50s since April.”
There will actually be two cold fronts this week, the one that steers Hurricane Melissa and a second one that will further drive down temperatures.
“The first drop in temperatures will be Wednesday and the lows will be 65, and then Friday morning it will drop again to around 59 and Saturday morning it will be around 55,” Fleming said.
Satellite image of Hurricane Melissa as of 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, 2025.
Hurricane season runs through the end of November, although hurricanes have formed in every month on the calendar.
The 2025 season has been quiet for Florida, but there are still more than four weeks to go in the season.
Cold fronts put a hamper on hurricane formation
Cold fronts during the fall also cool off water temperatures in the Gulf.
More: Hurricane Melissa forecast to strengthen into Category 5 storm. See path.
High temperatures in the Gulf can fuel major storm development, even at this late point in the year.
“The cold fronts cool off the water temperature, and that helps prevent a large storm late in the season,” Fleming said. “So it’s good news if you don’t want to see a hurricane in the Gulf.”
Fleming said late October is the time of year to see lows in the 50s, and that this one-two cold front combo is hitting Southwest Florida just in time for Halloween.
“This time of year, around Halloween, is normally when we see cold fronts that come through that noticeably drop the temperature and bring cool, dry air,” Fleming said.
Fort Myers last saw temperatures below 65 on April 30, and April 14 was the last time we saw lows below 60, according to NWS records.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: See how weather moving over Florida is steering Hurricane Melissa
