Jacksonville, FL — This winter is closer to an “average” winter for freezes in Jacksonville but the trend - especially since 2010 - is for fewer freezes per season. The avg. is 15 nights at or below 32 degrees F at JIA. Of course, the beaches average far fewer freezes. Through Jan. 27th, the total at JIA is 10 freezes vs. just 3 last winter & 5 freezes the winter before. Since 2010-’11, only one winter has come close to avg. - 2017-’18 with 14 freezes. The last time we’ve had an above avg. winter of freezes were back-to-back-to-back-to-back winters of 2010-’11 (31)... 2009-’10 (25) & 2008-’09 (28).
The countdown is on! - NASA’s Perseverance is less than a month away from it much anticipated visit to Mars! Once the Rover is “home” - scheduled for Feb. 18th - there will be a weather station transmitting the temperature, radiation/dust, relative humidity and wind. According to NASA:
Lots of good info. from NASA * here *.
The spacecraft has about 25.6 million miles (41.2 million kilometers) remaining in its 292.5-million-mile (470.8-million-kilometer) journey and is currently closing that distance at 1.6 miles per second (2.5 kilometers per second). Once at the top of the Red Planet’s atmosphere, an action-packed seven minutes of descent awaits – complete with temperatures equivalent to the surface of the Sun, a supersonic parachute inflation, and the first ever autonomous guided landing on Mars.
Image below from NASA/JPL-Caltech: