Snow in Florida

Ice and snow on the Pensacola Bay Bridge. This happened on January 29, 2014 after a winter storm.

The U.S. state Florida does not get snow very often. Most of the time, major cities in Florida do not get snowfall that can be measured. Some areas in the far north are able to get snow more often. The National Weather Service says that the Florida Keys and Key West have not gotten a snow flurry in more than 300 years. In Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach, only one snow flurry was recorded. This happened in January 1977.^[1] Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Palm Beach have not had a snow flurry before or after that.

Florida's climate is low latitude and subtropical. Temperatures that are cold enough to have snowfall do not happen long. Frost is more likely to happen than snow because it needs a temperature of 32°F or 0°C, less than 2 m or 7 ft above sea level, no clouds in the sky, and a relative humidity of 65% or more.^[2] For snow to happen in Florida, a polar jet stream must go south through Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. A cold front has to stop around the south part of Florida and curve northeast to add very cold air into clouds.^[3]

The earliest known time Florida got snow was in 1774. People in Florida thought it was "extraordinary white rain."^[4] The first White Christmas in the northeast part of Florida was on December 23, 1989.^[5]

References

1. Keith C. Heidorn (January 1, 2002). "Miami's First Snowfall". Archived from the original on August 29, 2007. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
2. Davis, T. Frederick (1908). "Climatology of Jacksonville, Fla. and vicinity" (PDF). Monthly Weather Review. 35 (12): 566–572. Bibcode:1907MWRv...35..566D. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1907)35<566:COJFAV>2.0.CO;2. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 29, 2017. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
3. Winterling, George (December 4, 2003). "Snow on the First Coast". News4JAX.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2007. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
4. "Has It Ever Snowed in Florida?". Worldatlas.com. 25 October 2017.
5. Armstrong, Tim (December 7, 2014). "Christmas Coastal Snowstorm: December 22-24, 1989". National Weather Service Wilmington. Archived from the original on November 13, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2020.