Dear Tom,
What is the farthest south that snow has fallen in the United States?
Sue Bosserman
Dear Sue,
Many readers will recall the cold and snowy conditions that prevailed across Chicago and much of the nation during the three consecutive winters of 1976-77, 1977-78 and 1978-79. On at least one occasion during one of those barbaric winters, arctic air blasted south to the Gulf of Mexico and across all of Florida, and temperatures were low enough to produce snow flurries in the Miami area.
The Miami National Weather Service says snow flurries were recorded at Homestead, 25 miles southwest of Miami, on Jan. 19, 1977. That’s the southernmost location within the 48 states ever to report snow. As that bitterly cold air mass surged southeast across the Midwest three days earlier, Chicago registered bone-chilling high/low temperatures of -7(degrees)/-19(degrees) (Jan. 16, 1977).
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
