Snow in Miami: The Full Story Behind the Only Confirmed Snowfall in South Florida History

If you’ve heard stories about snow falling over Miami’s palm trees and sandy beaches, you’re not imagining things — but you are picturing something that has happened exactly once in recorded history. The truth about snow in Miami is more specific, more scientifically interesting, and more easily distorted by social media than most people realize.

January 19, 1977: The Only Confirmed Snowfall in Miami’s History

January 19, 1977, was the first time in recorded history that snow fell in Miami. The flakes began to fall in Broward and Miami-Dade between 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., as an Arctic cold front made its way down the coast of Florida.

The snow fell as far south as Homestead, and flakes even fell on the sandy shores of Miami Beach. Shivering South Floridians, young and old, looked up into the sky in total amazement as flakes landed on their faces. By 9:30 a.m., South Florida’s snow event was over. Considered only a “trace” amount, Miami’s snow event isn’t even in the weather books.

An asterisk is included in the official precipitation records for Miami to indicate the widespread reports of snow on the morning of January 19th.

Although air temperatures were slightly above freezing when the snow fell, the freezing level on the morning of the 19th was at only 1,500 feet above sea level, which is very low for South Florida. This prevented the precipitation from melting before reaching the ground. That precise atmospheric condition — not surface temperature alone — is what made the event possible.

That day the high only reached 47°F (8°C) in Miami. The following morning brought even colder temperatures: some parts of South Florida saw their coldest temperatures ever recorded, including 28 degrees in Fort Lauderdale and 32 degrees in Miami Beach. Homestead dropped to 23 degrees.

According to the National Weather Service, the snow that day at the weather station in Hollywood, Florida, was the first ever recorded at that site, and the same was true at the Everglades National Park. Snow flurries even fell in the Bahamas that morning, according to The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

No snow had ever been reported in southeastern Florida before or since.

What Made 1977 Meteorologically Unusual

The cold wave of January 1977 produced the only known snowfall in the Miami area of Florida and the Bahamas. It occurred following the passage of a strong cold front, in combination with a high-pressure area situated over the Mississippi River Valley. As a result, cold air spewed across Florida, causing both snowfall and record low temperatures.

The snow occurred during a prolonged period of very cold temperatures in South Florida. The first Arctic front moved through the region late on the afternoon of January 16th, with temperatures failing to reach the 60-degree mark in Miami for four consecutive days from January 17th to the 20th. The coldest air and snow arrived with the second Arctic front on the 19th.

Two reinforcing cold fronts, a low freezing level, and sufficient atmospheric moisture arriving at the same moment — a combination that has not repeated itself in South Florida since.

Historical Context: What Came Before 1977

Before 1977, the southernmost extent of snow flurries officially recorded in the state was in February 1899. That earlier event saw frozen precipitation observed only as far south as a line running between Fort Myers and Fort Pierce, stopping well short of the Miami metropolitan area. The February 1899 cold wave remains notable for delivering Miami’s lowest daily maximum temperature on record, a frigid 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

In other words, it took nearly 80 years from the previous closest approach for snow to actually reach Miami — and it has not returned in the nearly five decades since.

The January 2025 Gulf Coast Blizzard: What Actually Happened in Florida

In January 2025, headlines exploded with news of historic snowfall in Florida. The event was real and record-shattering — but understanding exactly where the snow fell matters.

The 2025 Gulf Coast blizzard was a rare and unusually strong winter storm impacting much of the Gulf Coast of the United States between January 20 and January 22, 2025. This was the first recorded blizzard on the Gulf Coast and the most significant winter storm in the region since 1895.

The storm delivered jaw-dropping totals to the Florida Panhandle beginning on Tuesday, Jan. 21. Pensacola recorded an incredible 8.9 inches of snow, demolishing a nearly 130-year-old record set during the February 1895 snowstorm. Florida also set a new statewide snowfall record when Milton measured 9.8 inches, far surpassing the previous state record of 4 inches set in 1954.

Florida’s Governor issued a state of emergency ahead of the storm. At one point, Florida had 15,000 power outages. A stretch of Interstate 10 also closed for a time across the Panhandle due to the wintry conditions.

Did Snow Fall in Miami During the 2025 Storm?

No. The storm that rewrote Florida’s snowfall records was entirely concentrated in the Florida Panhandle — roughly 650 miles northwest of Miami. South Florida’s geography and latitude kept it well outside the reach of the system.

Despite viral videos and social media posts claiming to show snow in Miami during this storm, meteorological records from National Weather Service offices serving South Florida confirmed no snowfall in Miami-Dade or Broward counties during the January 2025 event. This pattern — extraordinary weather somewhere in Florida triggering inflated claims about Miami specifically — is a recurring one, and worth approaching with scrutiny.

Why Snow in Miami Is Extremely Unlikely

Miami’s Tropical Climate Classification

Miami has a tropical monsoon climate, with average winter temperatures that rarely dip below 60°F (16°C). The city’s geographical location, just 25.76 degrees north of the equator, places it in a climate zone where snowfall is virtually impossible.

Miami’s climate is shaped by its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, which keep temperatures relatively stable year-round. Even in winter, cold air masses from the north rarely reach far enough south to significantly cool the region. The Gulf Stream — the powerful warm ocean current flowing along Florida’s eastern coastline — acts as a natural buffer against deep cold penetration into South Florida.

The Atmospheric Requirements for Snow in Miami

For snow to form and reach the surface in Miami, several conditions must align simultaneously:

• Temperatures must remain below freezing through the entire atmospheric column, not just at the surface
• The freezing level must be exceptionally low — in 1977, it sat at only 1,500 feet, which is rare for this latitude
• Sufficient moisture must be present to form ice crystals
• Cold air must persist long enough, with no warm air intrusion, to keep precipitation frozen all the way to the ground

Miami’s position between warm Atlantic waters to the east and warm Gulf waters to the west makes sustained cold that reaches all these thresholds extraordinarily rare. The 1977 event required two sequential Arctic fronts working in combination — not just one.

The 2010 Near-Miss: An Unconfirmed Footnote

In January 2010, there was a very serious cold snap that hit South Florida, and there were reports of snow flurries in Miami-Dade and Broward when temperatures reached 35 degrees. The National Weather Service announced these reports, but they were not officially confirmed.

This event illustrates how close the conditions occasionally get — and also how high the verification bar is for an official snowfall record in a location like Miami.

For most visitors from colder climates, Miami’s “winter” is more like a mild autumn. Here is what to realistically expect during the coldest months:

These averages explain why a temperature of 47°F — the high during Miami’s one snow day — stands as one of the coldest afternoons ever recorded in the city’s history.

How Miami Responds to Cold Weather

For a city where January lows average 60°F, anything approaching that 1977 benchmark triggers a visible civic reaction. When temperatures fall below 70°F, winter coats appear. Local news stations report from gas stations and coffee shops. Social media is filled with dramatized cold-weather content. Café menus gain hot drinks that rarely appear otherwise.

For visitors from northern states, these “cold” days in the 60s often mean quieter beaches, shorter restaurant waits, and more comfortable conditions for exploring outdoor attractions like Biscayne Bay, South Beach, and the neighborhoods of Wynwood and Little Havana.

Will Miami Ever See Snow Again?

To this day, South Florida has not had snow again, and because of climate change, the odds are against it happening again in the future.

Climate scientists studying snowfall probability in subtropical regions note that rising baseline temperatures make it progressively harder for Arctic air masses to maintain the intensity needed to push far enough south. Even when a strong cold front does reach Miami, the mean temperatures are now starting from a warmer baseline, narrowing the window during which surface conditions could support frozen precipitation.

That said, atmospheric variability means the scenario cannot be ruled out entirely. If another event like January 1977 were to occur — two reinforcing Arctic fronts driving a polar air mass deep into the subtropics with unusually low freezing levels — the conditions could theoretically align. The probability remains vanishingly small.

The Social Media Problem: Verifying Snowfall Claims

The 2025 Gulf Coast blizzard demonstrated clearly how quickly snowfall claims in Florida spread across social platforms regardless of accuracy. Videos labeled “snow in Miami” or “Florida blanketed in snow” circulated widely during a storm that never came within hundreds of miles of South Florida.

Before accepting any dramatic weather claim about an atypical location, checking the National Weather Service’s local forecast office — in South Florida’s case, the NWS Miami office — provides ground-truth data. Official station observations, not social media clips, determine whether snow actually fell at a given location.

Miami’s Winter Attractions (Snow Not Included)

Miami’s winter months — November through February — offer conditions most cities can only envy. The combination of warm days, lower humidity, and cooler evenings creates a climate that works particularly well for:

• Art Basel and Miami Art Week run each December, drawing galleries, collectors, and visitors from across the world. The weather during this period is reliably comfortable for outdoor events.
• Everglades National Park is significantly more accessible in winter. Cooler temperatures reduce insect activity and make airboat tours, hiking trails, and wildlife observation far more comfortable than during summer months.
• Water activities remain viable well into January. Atlantic water temperatures in Miami rarely fall below the low 70s°F during winter, keeping conditions workable for open-water swimming, paddleboarding, and kayaking.
• Outdoor dining across Miami’s diverse neighborhoods — from Brickell to Coconut Grove to the Design District — is at its most pleasant during these months, without the summer heat that pushes diners indoors.

The 1977 Snow Day in Miami’s Cultural Memory

The snowfall in Miami wasn’t just a meteorological event; it was a cultural moment. Residents were caught off guard, stepping outside in disbelief to witness the snowflakes. Newspapers at the time ran headlines declaring, “The Day It Snowed in Miami,” and the event became a cherished part of local lore.

The cold snap was part of an unusually cold January across the eastern half of the nation that year. But for South Florida, the broader continental cold wave was almost beside the point. What mattered locally was those 90 minutes — 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. — when snow fell on Biscayne Bay, Miami Beach, and the Everglades.

For residents who were there, it remains one of the most referenced weather memories in the city’s history. For everyone born after, it is the benchmark against which all Miami cold snaps are measured — and so far, nothing has come close.