On the morning of Jan. 19, 1977, snow fell in Palm Beach County.  I remember this day clearly as if it were yesterday!  I was in sixth grade at a small private school in West Palm Beach. It was 6:15 am and we left the house to get into my mother’s car for the long ride from the north end of the county south end to school.  On this exceptionally cold morning we blew “smoke” from our mouths with delight. That kind of cold rarely happened here in South Florida.  Then the most unexpected thing occurred…flurries…flurries of snow!!! Forty years ago today it snowed in Palm Beach County! It was AMAZING!!!

The 27-degree temperature recorded at Palm Beach International Airport on the day of the snowfall is the record low for the area. The snow that day had an icy reach as far south as Homestead Air Force Base. It was the farthest south snow had been recorded in the U.S. The snow spread west to Freeport, Bahama. It is the only instance of snow ever being observed in the history of the Bahamas.

The snowfall did not come as a complete surprise to the weather forecasters. It had been a bitterly cold for few days and followed by another cold front two days later. Record-low temperatures were expected. Freeze warnings and light rain had meteorologists warning of graupel and icy roads.  The desperately low temperature had iguanas falling from trees.

Records kept by the National Weather Service in Miami show the first snowfall at Palm Beach International Airport was observed at 6:10 a.m. on January 19, 1977.