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 snow for the Sunshine State this weekend.There now appear 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 storm which will be mostly rain Saturday could become mixed with or changeover to wet snow later in the day or during the evening in central counties. Asecond shot at snow could come Sunday as cold air pours across the peninsula inan unstable fashion. The result could be snow showers, the winter equivalent ofthe 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? This weekend offers the best chance of snow in years, if notdecades, for these locations. And the way this winter is going, it may not bethe last opportunity. It's a good thing the Daytona 500 is over a month away.
Story By AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski
