News

Actions

Floridians remember the day it snowed in South Florida

Posted at 5:46 PM, Jan 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-19 19:26:44-05

You had to be here to believe it or have video evidence.

40 years ago Thursday, it snowed in West Palm Beach. Not a lot, but for close to 2 hours, we saw flakes fall on the ground, measuring a whopping 0.2 inches.

It's hard to imagine today when it was 82 degrees.

However, Kim Byrne remembers January 19, 1977 like it was yesterday. "Completely opposite of what it was like."

She was in 9th grade and might as well have called it a snow day. Temperatures were above freezing at the surface, so there wasn't much accumulation.

All of South Florida was still in awe.

"We were standing on our chairs looking out the window and the teacher actually dismissed us from class," says Byrne.

Mary Pinak was a senior at Cardinal Newman and the memory never leaves her.

She remembers waking up to what she thought was a dream.

"There was no class to be held until the snow melted," says Pinak.

She wonders when it could happen again.

NewsChannel 5's morning meteorologist Glenn Glazer explained the snow was the result of a series of Arctic cold fronts that came in.

It was the front on January 18th with a little bit of moisture behind that brought the snow.

Glazer says it could happen again. "We need a really cold spell for this to happen again. Hasn't happened yet, but it certainly could."