Warming shelters for the homeless are open as Florida experiences its coldest weather this winter

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Tourists bundled up, warming shelters for the homeless opened and growers sprayed crops with water to create protective ice for their plants Friday as sunny Florida shivered through the coldest weather that parts of the state have experienced in more than three years.

The 19 degree Fahrenheit (minus 7.2 Celsius) temperature overnight at Tallahassee International Airport may have made the Sunshine State feel like Green Bay, Wisconsin, but it stopped short of the record 16 F (minus 8.9 C) almost a century ago, according to Mark Wool, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.

“It's cold, but it's not all that unusual to have cold weather this time of the year,” Wool said Friday.

There was even more un-Florida-like weather predicted for the weekend with the National Weather Service putting the chances for snow in the Panhandle early Sunday at between 20% and 30%. The snow was predicted to be less than an inch (2.5 centimeters) in the western Panhandle but not expected to impact travel because of a short duration and an expected quick rise in temperatures afterward, Wool said.

That would make it a far cry from the 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of snow that fell on Pensacola almost exactly a year ago.

“The reasonably worst-case scenario is an inch since the window is only two or three hours,” Wool said of Sunday's forecast. “But all of that will melt away when it warms up.”

Temperatures on Saturday were expected to warm up to more Sunshine State-like weather before dipping again Sunday and Monday. The thermometer was expected to be a cool-for-Miami mid-50s F (12.7 C) during Monday night’s college football championship game between Indiana and Miami at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

The central part of Florida on Friday experienced some of the coldest weather it has seen in more than three years as lows dipped to the mid-20s F (minus 3.8 C), according to the National Weather Service.

In the theme park hub of Orlando, where the thermometer fell to right at freezing overnight, water parks such as Typhoon Lagoon at Walt Disney World were closed Friday. The water park also planned to be closed at the beginning of next week because of the predicted frigid weather, Disney said in an email.

In Plant City, which bills itself as the winter strawberry capital of the world, growers used sprinklers to spray strawberry plants and ornamental plants with water that formed a protective ice as the overnight temperature went as low as 28 F (minus 2.2 C). The ice kept the plants' temperatures from going below freezing. Plant City is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Tampa.

In northeast Florida, potato growers covered their crops with extra soil to protect against the freezing weather.

There were no widespread problems reported with any crops in Florida, said Christina Morton, director of communications for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, a growers' trade association.

“Florida is well into its winter season for fruit and vegetables, so the timing for this cold snap was not ideal,” Morton said in an email. “The good news is things warmed up quickly this morning, and despite the wintry conditions, harvesting continued across much of the state today.”

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A protective coating of ice clings to strawberries in sub-freezing temperatures at a field Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Plant City, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

A protective coating of ice clings to a strawberry flower in sub-freezing temperatures at a field Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Plant City, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

A protective coating of ice clings to ornamental plants in sub-freezing temperatures at a business Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Plant City, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

A protective coating of ice clings to a strawberry plant in sub-freezing temperatures at a field Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Plant City, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to pardon former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, a White House official said Friday.

Vázquez pleaded guilty last August to a campaign finance violation in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker. Her sentencing was set for later this month.

Federal prosecutors had been seeking one year behind bars, something that Vázquez’s attorneys opposed as they accused prosecutors of violating a guilty plea deal reached last year that saw previous charges including bribery and fraud dropped.

They noted that Vázquez had agreed to plead guilty to accepting a promise of a campaign contribution that was never received.

Attorneys for Vázquez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The official who confirmed the planned pardon indicated Trump saw the case as political prosecution and said the investigation into Vázquez, a Republican aligned with the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, had begun 10 days after she endorsed Trump in 2020. The official wasn’t authorized to reveal the news by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

CBS News was the first to report the plan to pardon Vázquez.

Pablo José Hernández, Puerto Rico's representative in Congress and a member of the island's main opposition party, condemned a pardon for Vázquez.

“Impunity protects and fosters corruption. The pardon ... undermines public integrity, shatters faith in justice, and offends those of us who believe in honest governance,” said Hernández, a Democrat with Puerto Rico's Popular Democratic Party.

Vázquez, an attorney, was the U.S. territory’s first former governor to plead guilty to a crime, specifically accepting a donation from a foreigner for her 2020 political campaign.

She was arrested in August 2022 and accused of engaging in a bribery scheme from December 2019 through June 2020 while governor. At the time, she told reporters that she was innocent.

Authorities said that Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions was investigating an international bank owned by Venezuelan Julio Martín Herrera Velutini because of alleged suspicious transactions that had not been reported by the bank.

Authorities said Herrera and Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who provided consulting services to Herrera, allegedly promised to support Vázquez’s campaign if she dismissed the commissioner and appointing a new one of Herrera’s choosing.

Authorities said Vázquez demanded the commissioner’s resignation in February 2020 after allegedly accepting the bribery offer. She also was accused of appointing a new commissioner in May 2020: a former consultant for Herrera’s bank.

Vázquez was the second woman to serve as Puerto Rico’s governor and the first former governor to face federal charges.

She was sworn in as governor in August 2019 after former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned following massive protests. Vázquez served until 2021, after losing the primaries of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party to former Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.

Associated Press reporter Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed.

FILE - Governor Wanda Vázquez speaks at a press conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti, File)