Florida rang within the New 12 months underneath an Arctic chill — and the chilly delivered one of many Sunshine State’s strangest spectacles: iguanas falling from the sky.
A sharp chilly snap despatched temperatures plunging throughout the state on New 12 months’s Eve, beautiful cold-blooded iguanas and knocking them from timber in South Florida, with dramatic pictures spreading quickly on-line.
Meteorologist Matt Devitt posted a photograph Friday of a vivid inexperienced iguana sprawled on the grass in Fort Myers after tumbling from a tree the place temperatures dipped to 39 levels.
“WE HAVE FALLING IGUANAS!” Devitt wrote, stressing the reptile “just isn’t lifeless, simply chilly surprised.”
Comparable scenes unfolded tons of of miles away in Miami, the place one other meteorologist, Dylan Federico, shared viewer video of a immobile iguana clinging limply to a railing in the course of the in a single day freeze.
“We have now frozen iguanas in Miami!” Federico wrote as temperatures dropped into the 40s in components of South Florida.
The photographs captured a trademark of Florida chilly snaps: inexperienced iguanas briefly shutting down when temperatures fall under their consolation zone.
Iguanas are ectothermic, which means they depend on exterior warmth to control their physique temperature. When the mercury drops into the 40s — and particularly under — their metabolism slows dramatically, usually leaving them motionless.
As their muscle tissue stiffen, iguanas resting excessive in timber can lose their grip and fall to the bottom, generally from heights of a number of tales.
Wildlife officers have lengthy warned Floridians to not assume the animals are lifeless.
In lots of circumstances, the reptiles recuperate as soon as temperatures rise and daylight warms their our bodies, generally inside hours.
The New 12 months’s chilly snap was among the many most widespread Florida has seen in years.
A robust chilly entrance swept into the state within the closing days of 2025, dragging frigid air deep into the peninsula after weeks of unseasonable heat.
Forecasts referred to as for lows within the 20s and 30s throughout North and Central Florida, with even South Florida dipping into the 40s — chilly sufficient to set off frost advisories, freeze warnings and cold-weather alerts throughout a lot of the state.
In Southwest Florida, officers mentioned it was the coldest New 12 months’s Eve in roughly 25 years. Central Florida logged its coldest end-of-year temperatures in additional than 20 years.
The abrupt temperature swing left extra than simply iguanas struggling.
Chilly-weather shelters have been opened from the Panhandle to the Treasure Coast as officers urged residents to convey pets indoors, defend vegetation and test on aged neighbors.
For iguanas, the freeze reignited a well-known debate in Florida.
Inexperienced iguanas are an invasive species, launched a long time in the past by way of the pet commerce and now firmly entrenched, significantly in South Florida. They’re blamed for damaging seawalls, sidewalks and landscaping by burrowing, and for stripping vegetation.
As a result of they’re nonnative, iguanas usually are not protected in Florida, besides underneath anti-cruelty legal guidelines.
Wildlife officers constantly advise residents to not deal with cold-stunned iguanas.
Although they might seem lifeless, warming them indoors may cause them to revive immediately — and defensively — utilizing sharp claws, enamel and highly effective tails.
Relocating iguanas is prohibited underneath state legislation, and consultants say leaving them alone is the most secure course for each folks and animals.
