New research offers clearer picture of cold snap's effect on Everglades - Environment - MiamiHerald.com

The frigid weather last January was the coldest 12-day stretch since the 1940s, according to the National Weather Service, with temperatures in the Everglades never rising above 50 degrees. It claimed countless victims, native and exotic, across diverse habitats.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Service documented at least 244 manatees killed by cold, leading to a one-year record for total deaths. A plunge in ocean temperatures all but wiped out corals in shallow waters from Biscayne Bay through much of the Florida Keys and left hundreds of sea turtles dead or stunned and sick. The 100-plus carcasses of rare North American crocodiles represented about 10 percent of the coastal population.

The cold snap also produced one of the largest fish kills seen in decades.