One of the delights of living in Florida this time of year is to hear all about the bad weather and snowy conditions from relatives up North. My brother called to tell me it was -11 at Purdue (West Lafayette, IN) and in a rare event the college closed down due to snow and freezing winds.

The coldest recorded temperature in Florida history is -1 degrees F in Tallahassee on February 13, 1899. Getting light snow, however, hits the Florida Panhandle interior every few years and Jacksonville gets snow flurries several times a decade.

The most snow officially recorded in Florida was four inches in Milton (on a hill) on March 6, 1954 and March 12, 1993. Floridians get so excited about snow that often frost is called snow by Sunshine Staters when they wait up on a cold morning. Sorry – frost can even form at 45 degrees if the elements are right.

We had real snow here in Tampa in January of 1977 (see photograph) and the furthest south snow flurries was ever filmed was on January 8, 2010 in Kendall (Miami-Dade County). Snow can cause some excitement here in Florida, but I want it to be an unusual occurrence. .