January 19, 1977 was an unusual day in Tampa Bay. The Tribune remembers that it snowed in Tampa. Steve Otto was there, too. Do any of you remember that day?
I’d love to see some more photographs. If any of you have pictures of the snow in Tampa, please email us and we’ll get ‘em scanned and posted here.
Bryan
3 years ago
It also snowed December 25th, 1989. I do have pictures of that somewhere, but they are buried deep. It was enough to dust parked cars. My mom has pictures from the 1977 incedent. I was only a year old.
drkptt
3 years ago
I remember in St. Pete that there was only enough snow to blow against the curbs so there were six-inch-wide “snowdrifts” lining the streets. Florida Power couldn’t keep up with the power demand so they started rolling blackouts. When the power went out at St. Pete Catholic they sent us home (late morning). So, being typical HS students, our first stop was to pick up some cold six-packs of Busch to warm up the rest of the day.
melissa
3 years ago
I remember the snow from 89 that Bryan was talking about, though all the pictures I have of it were taken in Orlando where my brother and I were visiting our mom and our newborn baby brother..
james
3 years ago
I was sick that day. Home from school. My mother did not want me to go out play in it. My sister at USF had snowball fights with her friends.
DaveDorm
3 years ago
I was nine years old when that storm hit in 1977. I remember it well. It was weird, but fun. A few years later, we moved to Tennessee, when my mom married some hillbilly. Then we saw snow every winter. I was never happier than when I returned to Florida for good in 1994.
voxpopuli
3 years ago
Oh man ! Thanks for the very cool memories. I worked at a bank then, it was my first ‘grown up’ job. We all opened the roof door (very much against audit procedures, thank you) and went out on the roof and scraped up enough snow to make some balls and a snowman. My Mom woke me up and the look on her face and the memory of it is priceless. She had not seen snow in many years … I was REALLY happy to get this date to add to a journal I wish I had kept every day.
Thanks again !
Mark McKay
2 years ago
I was an 8th grader at Webb Jr. High in Tampa. We were on the split shift. The 9th graders went in the early morning and the 8th graders went later in the day. I remember that the 9th graders had to go to school that morning, but the 2nd shift got a snow day.
The whole city was pretty much shut down because no one was prepared for such weather. As I recall, there were a record amount of car wrecks and injuries that day.
My oldest daughter is the same age now as I was then. It would be something to have that experience duplicated for her, as I am not too sure that she believes me when I tell her about the time it snowed in Tampa.
Sheila
1 year ago
We have photos of our then-seven-year-old standing beside the snow-covered VW in an eerie white yard still lit by the street light. Being from Barbados, my husband did not know he should avoid driving so he and his little VW trekked on to work, and thankfully made it there okay.
Inauguration Day always reminds me of the Tampa snow because it was the day before Jimmy Carter was sworn in as President.
Sue
1 year ago
I remember the day as if it was today. I had moved to Brandon the year before… from Miami Beach. I always pulled the curtains back as I woke up to see what the day was starting out as. On this day, 32 years ago, I pulled back the curtains and said, “OH, S…!” (I generally do not curse.) My hubby asked what the problem was… I pulled the curtains aside again and his response was the same. He then got on the phone to his parents in S FL. They had snow flakes falling! I then woke up our 4 year old daughter, took her to the window, and explained that we had a surprise for her… we got a child’s reaction to the “OH, S…!” Then it was the dog’s turn… ran to the back door, took two steps out and stopped in his tracks, looked around, a dog’s version of “OH, S…!” and back tracked in his steps. I then went out to get the paper, the front door was open a few inches and I had a snow drift in my living room! The neighbors, many who had never seen snow, where out playing in it. I took a lot of pics. Scanner not working or I would add them. Traffic was a nightmare that morning. Do not remember snow in 1989, but I do remember the rolling blackouts because of the weather.
caanan
1 year ago
Saw this pic of the 1977 snowfall in Tampa at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tampa_Snow.jpg
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » Blog Archive » snow in tampa bay?
1 year ago
[...] may remember that it snowed briefly in 1989, but didn’t stick to the ground. It also snowed in Tampa on January 19, 1977 (recent Times story). Visitors to that old post have left their memories of [...]
DonnaFL
1 year ago
I have some pictures from Jan. 19, 1977 – Tampa’s snow day. Does the person still want pictures?
Nothing special, just the front yard, a truck with snow on its hood and an orange tree with oranges and snow.
It was a bad traffic day.
mike moses
4 months ago
can you help me on the temps when we had the rolling blackouts i have a bet with a friend of mine i thought it got down to 17 degrees that day and it did snow back in 1989 0r 1988 cant member i was throwing garbage in ruskin and i sen the snow i live in ohio so i know snow when i see snow my email is bigmikem13mm@yaho,com anybody can help me with the temps for that day of the rollig black outs
mike moses
4 months ago
yes it did snow than
Dan-O
3 months ago
A few of my color pics of the great blizzard in Tampa, 1977, at:
http://www.tampapix.com/snow.htm
sandi
2 months ago
Yes, I remember Jan 19, 1977 well! My son was in elementary school and had never seen snow, having been born in Tampa. He and the neighborhood boys were out scraping snow off the cars and packing it into balls. He tossed one at a neighbor going to work and nearly gave him a concussion. Truck drivers were angry over road closures, but forget that Florida roads weren’t built to accomodate snow–nor did we have snow plows. Great memories! Think it’ll happen again this year?
Cory
2 months ago
Remember the snow in 1977 was 8 yrs. old. But don’t remember 1989, but remember the rolling blackouts. My mom has pic’s from 77 got to find them.
Dan
2 months ago
Tommy, 10Connects News just did a story on snow in Tampa last night at 6pm. I had just received an email yesterday from them asking if they could use my pictures for the segment, which they did! They are 2 of my 3 pictures at http://www.tampapix.com/snow.htm. You can right click and save them to post here if you like.
–Dan Perez
joseph stefko
2 months ago
1977,i was around 12 , the night before told mt parents it was snowing ,noone believed me .the next morning ,we built a snow man , very cool missed scoll that day