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PHOTOS: The Day Tampa Got 2 Inches of Snow

By Geno
File photo. Kids in Tampa area schools were asked to stay inside on January 19, 1977. Teachers were overruled!

Were you brushing the snow off your car on this day back in 1977?

Two inches of snow were recorded in the Tampa area, according to Channel 10. It hasn’t happened since. And hopefully it won’t anytime soon. While I know lifelong Floridians find snow to be romantic and picturesque, for us transplants, it triggers bad memories of being wet and cold, shoveling and slipping.

It’s said that there were over 200 accidents on the roads that day. Two of those crashes involved school buses, which shocks me. I’d think classes at all schools would have been called off that day. Two inches of snow isn’t a lot to those familiar with driving in snow, but it’s not like Floridians are used to driving in winter weather.

79 ended up in the hospital just in Hillsborough County, according to news reports. Fortunately none of the kids in those school buses were among those hurt. Drivers were ok too according to Tampa Bay Times reports.

Not surprisingly, many lost power. Power lines were knocked down all over the area. Trees and crops didn’t fare well either.

While we won’t get any snow this weekend, temperatures are going to take a nosedive. In fact, temperatures will be cold enough this weekend for snow. But none is in the forecast. [Sources: Tampa Bay Times, Channel 10]

  • Brushable snow!

    When you live in the north, you always keep a brush or a broom in your car for days like this. This was definitely brushable snow on that day. But I liked this strategy better, commemorate the moment and write on your car windshield. I like how the car on the left even put the year on it, knowing we’d be looking back for years to come. We’re still talking about this storm almost 50 years later.

  • Bad memories!

    Just looking at this brings back so many awful memories of when I lived up north. I grew up in Maine and spent most of my adult living in the Boston area. So many mornings were spent like this having to get up extra early to shovel a path from your parking spot to the road, scraping ice off the windshield and getting all the snow off the car. by the time you got where you were going, you were cold, miserable and wet. I can’t help but wonder what Floridians used that day to scrape ice off the glass. It’s not like we carry scrapers.

  • No way!

     

    One Twitter user who commented on this photo mentioned that teachers wanted kids to stay inside that day. Kids weren’t having it of course. The teachers got overruled. Gotta make those snow angels before it melts. And it was definitely a Kodak moment for families. Hopefully they had film in the camera. Couldn’t just snap a photo with your phone back in those days.

  • Even Mickey Mouse got in on it!

     

    Apparently even Orlando got in on the action. They didn’t seem to get as much snow as the Tampa area did judging by this photo. I was really blown away to read that even Miami had flurries that day.

  • USF doesn't get many snow days!

    How do bulls handle snow? I have to imagine classes were cancelled at USF that day. I love the story in this tweet. A USF prankster ran an ad for snow gear and then January 19, 1977 happened.

  • The scene in Lakeland

    Check out the homepage, excuse me homepages didn’t exist yet. Here’s the front page of The Ledger showing the Lakeland World Citrus Center getting “pelted” with snow. The storm definitely hurt the citrus growers that year. The cold temperatures were felt all around the country that week. But those in the northern states see cold weather as no big deal. Floridians whose livelihoods depend on citrus crops however definitely felt the impact.

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