Regions of both Louisiana and Texas faced warnings of freezing temperatures the morning of Jan. 6, 2025 according to Newsweek. The record-breaking cold front responsible for these conditions has already impacted Florida as well, with Newsweek stating that the northern parts of Florida expected similar drops in temperature. Tallahassee experienced below-freezing temperatures the evening of Jan. 7 and early morning Jan. 8. Even so, southern Florida will experience warmer temperatures than those of northern Florida, so there’s no guarantee that temperatures will fall below freezing in the region.
Even so, snow also requires precipitation, which Florida has been lacking. Tallahassee’s highest amount of rainfall during the cold front happened Jan. 7, with just 0.04 inches. Jacksonville received even less precipitation with just 0.02 inches of rainfall that same day. South Florida has it even worse; neither Miami nor Plantation have received any precipitation at all so far this month.
It has snowed in Miami before, but only once. Jan. 19, 1977, at temperatures between 30 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit, snow fell. The spectacle made headlines–the Miami News even released a special souvenir edition titled “The day that couldn’t happen: Snow in Miami!” Unfortunately, the cold weather also caused some roads to freeze over and resulted in roughly $100 million in agricultural losses in Miami-Dade County alone.
Yearbook teacher Ms. Herrera recalls her grandparents’ tales about the snow in Hollywood that day: “They had just moved here from Cleveland to get away from the cold – imagine their surprise when they woke up to snow here! My grandfather said that he had to scrape ice off of his windshield that day in order to get to work.”
While parts of Florida do have the low temperatures necessary for snow, the state lacks the rainfall to create snow. Although it seems like Florida won’t get snow, the rest of winter still holds the possibility of generating enough precipitation at cold enough temperatures for snow to fall. Who can say? You never snow.
Despite the lack of rainfall, Fort Lauderdale received the most precipitation out of the areas mentioned during the colder weather at 0.17 inches of precipitation Jan. 1, 2025. (Graph/Weather Underground)
