An anniversary passed by a few days ago. Probably one you didn't think of. It was on January 19, 1977, 35 years ago, that it actually snowed in South Florida. That morning the temperature got down to 29 degrees and ...it...snowed! Snow fell from as far north as Vero Beach all the way down to south of Miami. It stayed on the ground for a little while. There was enough to make snowballs out of and then it was gone by about 9:30 am.
Having grown up in the panhandle of Florida I have been exposed to cold temperatures and about every seven years there would be a snowfall of usually minor proportions. Most of the time it amounted to no more than just a mild dusting of snow that didn't cover the ground and not enough to even throw decently.
There was one time that it stayed around long enough to build snowmen and you could actually get into snowball fights. This was in 1957 or 1958. I don't really remember it, having been only a couple of years old at the time, but I have seen pictures of it and of me on the grounds of the Courthouse in Quincy so I can attest to the amount of plentiful snow that fell then. Where I live it does get into the upper 30s on occasion in South Florida. Mostly though our winters are at their coldest in the 40s and 50s. I had not moved here until years later so I missed the snowfall of 1977.
The panhandle gets much colder in the winter. Lows in the 20s and 30s are quite normal and it's not that unusual to see lows in the teens. For the "Sunshine State", we sure have some strange weather.
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