Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Yes, you read that headline correctly: Snow has fallen in Florida!
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office posted video to its Facebook page on Monday, Jan. 3, showing snow falling from the sky in the panhandle.
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The sheriff’s office said in the post that the temperature was 75 degrees on Sunday, but by 3 a.m. Monday, it was snowing.
The video was taken “during patrol in the Lowe’s parking lot on Beal by B-Shift Central!” and the sheriff’s office urged residents to bundle up to brace for the cold temperatures.
Michele Nicholson, a spokeswoman for the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, said in an email that the snow didn’t stick so it didn’t cause any problems. The county is home to two popular beach destinations, Fort Walt Beach and Destin.
Don Shepherd, a senior forecaster for the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, said in a phone interview that the dusting was “just a few little flurries.”
The last time the Florida Panhandle had any significant winter weather was in January 2018 when a storm dumped snow in Tallahassee for the first time in three decades and forced the closure of schools, offices and a stretch of Interstate 10.
The National Weather Service in nearby Mobile, Alabama, warned Monday that it was going to be unusually cold for the area and would feel colder than the actual temperature because of breezy conditions.
Temperatures in Central Florida will take a break from the mid-80s, but there’s no chance of snow falling in the Orlando area anytime soon.