florescent lights and cold wx

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I live in Eastern AZ where it gets down to around zero during the winter. (Yes we have cold weather in AZ) My problem it that I have an florescent type outdoor lamp that replaced a sodiun vapor unit. I bought it in the middle of June and it worked fine. Until it started to get cold (freezing temps), I thought it was something in the wiring but it wouldn't even start on my work bench. OK, I got a bad unit and I will have to replace it. But now my outside porch light does the same thing. I replaced it with a WalMart special that uses a incandesant buld. Is there something about florescent lamt that they won't start when it is cold? I have a small one in the garage that is lit all of the time and no problem. I just wentout to the garage to find something and turned on the lite. Its 22.4 degrees out there and I was in the dark. the lights wouldn't work.
One unit - maybe bad, two units questionable, three units - whats going one anyway.
Has anyone ran across this problem before?