There is a chance the winter of 2010 will not stop at record cold and frequentfreezes along the Gulf Coast. AccuWeather.com meteorologists are pondering thepossibility of more snow for the Sunshine State this weekend.We say more snow because snow already made an appearance in the FloridaPanhandle early this morning. The rain at the leading edge of an arctic blastmixed with wet snowflakes in Panama City and Destin.
There now appears to be two opportunities for snow in the central and northerncounties of the peninsula this weekend. That's right, we said peninsula, andnot panhandle.
A slow-moving band of rain could become mixed with or end as wet snowflakes orice pellets down to Daytona Beach early Saturday morning. A similar changeovercould take place over the rest of the central counties later in the day orevening. A second shot at snow could come Sunday as cold air pours across thepeninsula in an unstable fashion. The result could be snow showers, the winterequivalent of the more usual Florida showers or thunderstorms.
Snow events even in the Florida Panhandle are rare enough. However, the whitestuff is almost unheard of farther south. There are only a handful of incidentswith snow in the "land of the sun." During the winter of 1899, there weregulf-effect snow showers over the peninsula. On Jan. 19, 1977, flurries flew onMiami Beach, as well as many other areas of the state. A bit of snow fell morerecently at Daytona Beach on Jan. 24, 2003.
Will this weekend yield snow in Orlando, Tampa, Melbourne, Jacksonville andCape Canaveral? The weekend weather offers the best chance of snow in years, ifnot decades, for these locations. And the way this winter is going, it may notbe the last opportunity. It's a good thing the Daytona 500 is over a monthaway.
Story By AccuWeather.com Meteorologists Alex Sosnowski and KristinaPydynowski
