40 years ago today, the city of Miami, Florida saw it's first ever observed snow fall. Tampa got a blizzard of .2 inches and in Pensacola, the thermometer fell to 10F!
This cold spell also resulted in the only recorded account of snow to fall in the Bahamas.
Now you might think this is a joke, but this kinda of thing is a big deal, especially to places that don't get snow. I have relatives who live at the beach of North Carolina and if just 1 little snow flake falls, they cancel school because they just don't have the road clearing resources we do farther away from the coast. Since snow fell on a weekday in Miami, I am sure schools were closed.
Nowadays, experts say that it's the hottest the earth has ever been. I'm not going to get into some debate over global warming or climate change. But ever since I was a little kid, I've been in love with cold weather, ice, and snow. Just last week, we got a really early one and I loved it. I'm sure the people of Miami enjoyed this freak weather pattern and I'm sure I would've too. But I just have to have more than a once in 40 year episode of snow.
The cold of 1977 was murder on the American economy and it wasn't just due to this 5 day blast of arctic air. Winter of '77 was cold, really cold! Crops in the deep south were destroyed by frost. Over the next several months, shipping delays and loss of sales would result in higher prices and businesses to scale back or shut down. I'll talk more about this later in the month in another posting of A Madman Turns 40. Until then, enjoy these photos of the Miami Winter Wonderland.
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| Something you don't see everyday, snow on palm trees. |
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| I wonder how often this lady had to use an ice scraper in Miami before the snow of 1977... |
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