Florida’s January weather included recording-shattering snowfall in the northern part of the state and the coldest month Tampa Bay has seen in a decade.As we move into February, the cool weather will likely remain in the rear-view mirror, as forecasters expect the month will be warmer than normal, with highs this week in the low 80s and no cold fronts in sight.The temperature swing is a 180-switch from the nearly 10 inches of snow that fell in a day in north Florida in late January, the most ever recorded in the state’s history.A melding of moist Gulf of Mexico air and a blast of arctic cold led to the rare weather setup.But an underlying factor to the record-setting snow may have been the warming globe.“When you have an unstable climate like we have now, extreme events of all kinds happen,” said Bob Bunting, CEO and chairman of the Climate Adaptation Center, a non-profit in Sarasota.Temperatures in portions of the Gulf were running several degrees above normal ahead of the snow, and even now, parts of the Gulf and other waters where hurricanes form are warmer than average.The next hurricane season is months away, but factors that could influence tropical weather later this year are already taking shape.Here’s a breakdown of the ingredients that led to a record-breaking January, and what elements may affect our weather to come.Siblings Massie, Torin and Baz Melton played in the snow near their home on Jan. 21 in Pensacola. Born and raised in Florida, this was the first time the Melton siblings have played in the snow. [ LUIS SANTANA | Times ]The elements behind the snowArctic air punched into the United States from the north around late January, leading to freezing temperatures as south as Florida’s Nature Coast.In Tampa Bay, temperatures dipped to near freezing, the chilliest weather of the season.“We’ll get maybe one or two blasts like that during a winter, we expect to see it,” said Kyle Hanson, a meteorologist for Spectrum Bay News 9.Typically, the frigid air is coming from a dry, cold place, Hanson said. But this time around, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico created the perfect atmosphere for snow.“That’s what really caused the snow, and a once-in-a-lifetime event for those folks in the Panhandle,” Hanson said.It’s like the lake-effect snow that typically occurs across the Great Lakes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Ben Noll, a meteorologist that reports for the Washington Post, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to showcase warm waters along the central Gulf, near Louisiana a few days before the record snow.“The unusual oceanic warmth can contribute more moisture to storms, just as it did during hurricane season,” Noll wrote.To get instability in the atmosphere, like what occurred when it snowed, waters need to be warm and cooler air needs to be on top of it, Hanson said.“But you could have well below normal water temperatures in the Gulf for the winter, and then you
Mar. Feb 4th, 2025
