Floridians found themselves bundling up for an unusually bitter cold weekend, so much so that many wondered if the Jacksonville area might have seen some snow like last year’s first sighting of the frozen white flakes since 1989.
Well, the answer is sort of.
The Weather Service verified that light snow did fall at the Jacksonville International Airport ― but not enough to even make a hundredth of an inch, according to First Coast News Meteorologist Ross Mummah. There was just a trace.
Several viewers, though, sent in video of snow flurries from across Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia.
Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook and the Sheriff’s Office each posted a fun, elaborately creative snow sculpture photo noting that “Flurries have been reported across the county and we’re already experiencing freezing temperatures! Make sure you take care of your PEOPLE, PETS, PLANTS, AND PIPES!”
First Coast News Chief Meteorologist Lewis Turner also said Jacksonville had a record low of 23 degrees.
“Tonight we need to prepare for a similar situation,” Turner said. “The freeze point gets here about 10-11 o’clock tonight. … We stay below freezing a good bit of the evening, dipping into those low-20s, and then by about 10 o’clock Monday morning we’re back above the freeze point.”
He called it “frigid conditions” for sure.
“What’s next? Well, by Wednesday mid-week we’ve got another front coming through, but notice this would be all rain, some cool air behind it but not the arctic air mass that we have in place right now,” Turner said. “So, cold for Monday morning again, 20s again Tuesday, but we do have a warm-up on the way mid-week.
The weather team forecast that temperatures Monday morning will likely trigger Cold Weather Advisories from the National Weather Service, as lows dip to near record lows again. People can expect to wake up to the low-20s with a slight warm-up to the low-50s. The skies should be dry with abundant sunshine.
Tuesday is expected to gradually start getting a little warmer and the rest of the week in the 50s and above.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: ‘Oh, the weather outside is frightful,’ but did it snow, did it snow?
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
