Althouse: There's only one of the 50 states that has no snow, and it's not Hawaii.

February 13, 2014

There's only one of the 50 states that has no snow, and it's not Hawaii.

It's Florida.

(Because Hawaii has some mountain peaks. The highest you get in Florida is Britton Hill, a mere 345 feet above sea level.)

63 comments:

Brennan said...: It was Missouri two weeks ago. I had guessed Louisiana.; 2/13/14, 1:23 PM
David said...: You mean right now. Florida has had snow in the past.; 2/13/14, 1:26 PM
n.n said...: Well, we know it's not Illinois.

Paradise is a land of extreme contrasts, from the beachfront estates to the snow-capped mountains.; 2/13/14, 1:29 PM
LordSomber said...: The snow store called...; 2/13/14, 1:32 PM
John said...: The highest you get in Florida is Britton Hill, a mere 345 feet above sea level.

Depends on your definition of HIGHEST. Have you been clubbing in Miami?; 2/13/14, 1:34 PM
Drago said...: If it doesnt snow its AGW.
If it does snow its AGW.

If there are ice storms its AGW.
If there are no ice storms its AGW.

If the ice caps shrink its AGW.
If the ice caps grow its AGW.

We have the environmental "watermelons" telling us that all the cold weather is due to AGW.

What more need be said?; 2/13/14, 1:44 PM
Tibore said...: I was already depressed by the Weather Channel story comparing cities in the east and midwest with areas in Alaska. It's depressing to note that there are places in the Midwest that have gotten more snow during February than places in freakin' Alaska.; 2/13/14, 1:48 PM
DanTheMan said...: I got married in Florida some years ago. It snowed that day. A lot.
Well, a lot by Florida standards. :); 2/13/14, 2:21 PM
Bob R said...: We got over 20" in the last 24 hours here in Blacksburg, VA. Fortunately, it was pretty cold, so no freezing rain and the snow is light and fluffy. No power outages in our area so far. Lots of ice farther south.; 2/13/14, 2:22 PM
Unknown said...: Lived in Central Florida 1982-1990; one winter there was snow in Fla. and a Gainesville radio station broadcast that those who wanted to snow needed to go to the intersection of 2 (can't remember which, although I have a clear mental; image of them) streets.; 2/13/14, 2:35 PM
Ann Althouse said...: " It's depressing to note that there are places in the Midwest that have gotten more snow during February than places in freakin' Alaska."

Why is that "depressing"?!

The amount of snow ≠ the degree of coldness.; 2/13/14, 2:54 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: I second the commenters who dispute that it never snows in FL. Yes, it does.; 2/13/14, 3:00 PM
Freder Frederson said...: The amount of snow ≠ the degree of coldness.

Actually, parts of Alaska were warmer in January (Anchorage was in the mid-40s) than the midwest.; 2/13/14, 3:02 PM
MadisonMan said...: Parts of Alaska got to 60 in January. It was an awesome amount of above-normalness.

Anytime it's very cold in the eastern part of the US, it's likely warm and dry on the West Coast; that warmth/dryness may or may not extend up to Alaska. This time it did, spectacularly.; 2/13/14, 3:08 PM
DKWalser said...: Two comments: Here in Arizona, whe have snow where we want it -- in the mountains. Anyone who wishes to play in it can. Those who don't want snow can just stay out of the mountains. (You can call me in August to say how nice your weather is in comparison to mine.)

Much of Alaska is a desert. In an average year, those parts receive little rain or snow. (But what mositure does fall tends to stay around a while, because summer temps are not high enough for a high rate of evaporation.) So, in most years, the Midwest receives a lot more snow than much of Alaska.; 2/13/14, 3:21 PM
Paddy O said...: I wish some of those states would give us back our winter. It's summer like here today.; 2/13/14, 3:22 PM
Shanna said...: Florida had their snow last week, i believe.; 2/13/14, 3:32 PM
Larry J said...: I remember back in January 1977 when all 50 states had snow at the same time. I was in Florida attending the Sun-n-Fun Fly-in (now held in April) and it snowed on us. It was around the time of Jimmy Carter's inauguration and likely was a sign from God.; 2/13/14, 3:35 PM
Tibore said...: "Ann Althouse said...

Why is that "depressing"?!

Because snowfall over time is still one of the popular, albeit lay metrics of how "polar" or "arctic" a region's climate is. It may be more pop opinion than rationally grounded sensibility, but it's still how many non-meteorologists think.

And even when we're fully aware that this is simply a seasonal swing instead of a general climate-related state, we can still experience emotions (some amused, some mad, some like me a bit sad) based on beating out that higher latitude area in that one metric.; 2/13/14, 3:39 PM
chuck said...: This time it did, spectacularly

I arrived in Fairbanks one winter during a thaw, melt water flowing in the streets and all that. A week later it was -45F.; 2/13/14, 3:39 PM
Moose said...: 100 inches this winter in my area.; 2/13/14, 3:41 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I brag often and it is lies.

This time I guessed Florida. Hawaii has mountians, same with New Mexico, Texas actually goes pretty far North, so I settled on Florida.

I could not be happier and shall expect respect heretofore unheard of from all I encounter.

Suck it Silver (Nate).

Yeah I picked Denver 48 to Seattle 30, but that is all forgotten now.

I thought Romney would win too.

But those missteps are less than footnotes now that I picked Florida.

Beautiful, Graceful, Dignified Florida.; 2/13/14, 4:01 PM
Mark said...: That might be the vase, chuck ... But if you look at the weather this winter there is nothing like that. Seems like they have averaged +20 degrees vs Madison all of 2014 and have not hit zero since 2013.

That west coast thing had a huge effect. West coast is in for a ride if the predictions of an El Niño next winter come about.; 2/13/14, 4:07 PM
SteveR said...: Warmer, moist air from the Atlantic, meets, Arctic air and snow results. Al Gore hardest hit (not); 2/13/14, 4:12 PM
Anonymous said...: Good One!!!
Eviction Law Firm
http://www.theevictionlawfirm.com
Eviction law firm is a full services law firm focus on corporate, business transactions and litigation; 2/13/14, 4:40 PM
The Godfather said...: I lived in south Florida for 6 years before moving to North Carolina (where we now have about 8" of snow, plus freezing rain). Long-time residents used to tell their stories about the snow flurries one day in the '40's or whenever, and there was a facility that either made or imported snow into a big warehouse, so the kids could experience it.

My favorite line from Where The Boys Are, in the opening segment where the girls are planning to spend Spring Break in Lauderdale is "If I see another snow flake I'll positively barf." I know how she felt.; 2/13/14, 4:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Eviction Law Firm, I've got some snow here that hasn't been paying me a penny in rent.; 2/13/14, 5:09 PM
garage mahal said...: Well hello, eviction law....; 2/13/14, 5:10 PM
Michael K said...: Ninety degrees in LA. I'm so ashamed.; 2/13/14, 5:11 PM
n.n said...: Drago:

Global warming is a progressive process (i.e. monotonic change). They rejected progress in favor of chaos and today it is, rightly, called climate change, which has a variable period.

Also, notice that they frequently drop the anthropogenic qualifier. Apparently, the polling did/does not favor their human-caused Doomsday scenarios. The marketing group must be anxious, which may explain the sudden and fervent calls to legalize chill dills.; 2/13/14, 5:22 PM
Larry J said...: The Earth's climate has changed constantly over geologic time and will continue to do so in the future. No one denies the climate changes. The multi-trillion dollar question is to what extent, if any, are human activities having on the climate. To date, the evidence of human causation is decidedly lacking and the much touted computer models are not reflecting reality. When your models don't reflect reality, it isn't reality that's wrong..; 2/13/14, 5:35 PM
garage mahal said...: I'm sure everything is fine. The Koch Brothers would never lie to us, would they?; 2/13/14, 5:43 PM
CStanley said...: This is the second week this winter that Atlanta has been shut down. Not only the schools, but most businesses have closed.

Right before that first storm, I found out I needed an MRI to look for a brain tumor (well, acoustic neuroma, which may be sitting next to my brainstem and would require intracranial surgery.)

The MRI got delayed but I had it done last week and was supposed to find out the results this week. Now that appt has been cancelled. I'm rescheduled for tomorrow but now I have to scramble a babysitter since schools are still closed, and I'm praying the roads aren't too icy.

Not sure whether I should have posted this here in the snow thread or the "stress" one but there you have it.; 2/13/14, 5:46 PM
ken in tx said...: The Florida pan handle—also called LA, Lower Alabama—had their snow last week. My DIL in Pensacola posted pictures on Facebook.; 2/13/14, 6:20 PM
SteveR said...: The Koch Brothers would never lie to us, would they?

Judge not Pinocchio; 2/13/14, 6:37 PM
Michael McNeil said...: Of course, Alabama used to be called Upper Florida.; 2/13/14, 7:02 PM
etbass said...: CS, you need prayer and you have mine.

All the best.; 2/13/14, 7:17 PM
CStanley said...: Thank you etbass- it is much appreciated.; 2/13/14, 7:48 PM
garage mahal said...: Judge not Pinocchio

You need to leave the safety of the sidelines to judge that, IMO. Just try it!; 2/13/14, 8:23 PM
FullMoon said...: Chilly here in world famous Silicon Valley.

Been below 70 all week.

If this keeps up, I may sell the home and buy a neighborhood in Phoenix.; 2/13/14, 8:31 PM
Larry J said...: Michael McNeil said...
Of course, Alabama used to be called Upper Florida.

Never heard Alabama called Upper Florida. The Florida panhandle is often called LA for Lower Alabama.; 2/13/14, 8:36 PM
Anonymous said...: I remember back in January 1977 when all 50 states had snow at the same time.

A few snowflakes were reported that month in Homestead, south of Miami, the farthest south that snow has ever been seen in Florida. Accumulations are very rare outside the Panhandle and have never been reported further south than about the latitude of Tampa.

In addition to bringing snow to south Florida, the January 1977 storm also brought some flurries to Grand Bahama Island, the only known time snow has fallen in the Bahamas.

Peter; 2/13/14, 8:45 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: CStanley - the "stress" thread, but the snow thread suits too.

I'll say a prayer for you to get news, and if not, to get speedy effective treatment.

All my best. THAT is STRESS, cubed. I'm so sorry.; 2/13/14, 9:07 PM
Anonymous said...: The most recent time that there was snow on the ground in all 50 states was just over four years ago, on February 12, 2010. It looked as if Florida would be the holdout until some flurries came down near Pensacola that evening.

Florida, California and Hawaii are the only coastal states that have never reported snow at sea level.

Just a couple months ago there were news reports of a snowstorm in Cairo, accompanied by pictures of snow blanketing the Pyramids and the Sphinx. It didn't happen. The snow was actually hail, which sometimes can be hard to distinguish from snow, and the photo was from an Ancient Egypt theme park in northern Japan. Except for the mountains in the Sinai peninsula, there has been no known snow in Egypt in many decades.

Peter; 2/13/14, 9:13 PM
Tibore said...: Eviction law??

What next, some poster telling us about how his mother's cousin's neighbor's college roommate's ex-housekeeper's mailman makes $1500 a week at home, click there to see how? :-S; 2/13/14, 9:16 PM
Christy said...: CStanley, good luck with your diagnosis and your doctors.; 2/13/14, 9:29 PM
Original Mike said...: "The highest you get in Florida is Britton Hill, a mere 345 feet above sea level."

That's not high enough to survive the great sea-level rise. I'd move.; 2/13/14, 10:37 PM
Vittorio Jano IV said...: Just last month a hiker (a New Yorker!) on Mauna Loa in Hawaii had to be rescued after experiencing some "weather".
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/queens-hiker-saved-snowstorm-slams-hawaii-volcano-summit-article-1.1597792; 2/13/14, 11:27 PM
Anonymous said...: Ironrails: my very first visit to San Diego was in 1986 IIRC.
It snowed downtown, which is very close to sea level.; 2/14/14, 12:14 AM
Carl Pham said...: Snow is a very interesting phenomenon. The fact that it exists at all tells you that water has a tremendous temperature range in which it is thermodynamically unstable, but not absolutely unstable with respect to ice. That's why the water does not come down as tiny boring little balls of ice, but rather delicate fairy structures that must grow slowly (from an atomic point of view) on the rare nucleus.

We can presume the reluctance to crystallize is the result of the hydrogen-bonding driven diamondoid lattice of the solid that must form -- the water has to expand, enthalpically uphill, and must significantly reduce local entropy (probably) -- but so far as I know, the actual dynamics elude understanding. That is, intelligent microbeings with a history confined to a Florida swamp, who knew the complete description of the water molecule, and all the laws of physics, would not predict snow in their micro-microcomputers, and would be flabbergasted by the first flake that drifted into their ken.

In a nutshell, that is the many body problem, the reason why simple physical laws do not lead to a boring universe, and the very hardest type of problem for the human mind to solve, because we don't think in the right way -- and don't even know what the right way would look like. Snow is a forceful reminder that our abilities to reason, even from plain and simple axioms, are savagely limited. Philosophers, legislators, and Supreme Court justices who really understood the problem of snow would, were they honest, have to quit their jobs and become fry cooks.

So I guess it's useful, up to a point, that they are safely swaddled in ignorance of their ignorance, and just think of snow as Nature's architectural gargoyles or an impediment to travel.

If God exists, snow is one of his finest palimpsest messages: at the top, a simple charm, in the middle (under a microscope), a sophisticated elegance, and one more layer down -- one hesitates to be confident it's the bottom -- a pastel rainbow promise that you cannot be too smart to be surprised.; 2/14/14, 2:29 AM
rcommal said...: .; 2/14/14, 5:05 AM
rcommal said...: CStanley: Take care and Godspeed. And thanks for the perspective-check. The snow and ice will melt without a doubt, as surely as Spring, then Summer, then Autumn, follows Winter (and so on). The sort of health scare you're weathering is a much bigger deal, and I hope you get to have the best possible news soonest (and that the freakish, temporal weather will get the hell out of the way of all of that). T+P2&4U.; 2/14/14, 5:05 AM
Jaq said...: Well, I have some friends who are coming up for ice fishing this weekend. I guess we will be digging a bit to find the ice.; 2/14/14, 6:25 AM
CStanley said...: Thanks to all for the prayers and good wishes. It looks like the roads will be drivable so I should be able to get news today. Good or bad, I just want to know already!; 2/14/14, 6:42 AM
JHapp said...: Current Snow Map; 2/14/14, 6:44 AM
Scott said...: You know that DirecTV ditched The Weather Channel? They went with WeatherNation, which is apparently a lower-cost option that has fewer of those bullshit weather documentaries.

Just like MTV drifted into content that has nothing to do with music, and The History Channel has nothing to do with history, The Weather Channel is going to have damn little to do with the weather.; 2/14/14, 7:34 AM
Larry J said...: The Koch Brothers would never lie to us, would they?

One reason the Kock Brothers are so wealthy is that they get to live rent-free in liberals' and idiots' (but I repeat myself) minds.; 2/14/14, 8:04 AM
Sorun said...: Britton Hill, a mere 345 feet above sea level.

"Hey kids, let's climb to the highest spot in all of Florida!"; 2/14/14, 8:57 AM
CStanley said...: @Sorun-
Compared to New Orleans, that really is a mountain.

When we moved there my Dad chose a home in Algiers (West Bank) because it was the highest ground- 5 ft above sea level.

In Audobon Zoo there is a hill called Monkey hill, built so that kids would have somewhere to climb. Of course the 100 year old oaks in Audobon Park and City Park are more fun.; 2/14/14, 9:10 AM
MadisonMan said...: Florida, California and Hawaii are the only coastal states that have never reported snow at sea level.

There were flurries in Homestead in 1977. How is that not sea level.

Perhaps you mean snow on the ground. I would question that as well, as San Francisco has had snow -- I recall seeing a picture of SFO with snow on the runways. You can't get more sealevel than SFO.; 2/14/14, 10:37 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Weird. 345 feet for an entire state. It is almost 400 feet down to the Target, in the adjoining town, and maybe 300 feet up to the county seat, where I currently am living, in one of the smallest counties in Colorado - which has over 6,000 foot altitude difference throughout the county.; 2/14/14, 12:07 PM
ken in tx said...: To be historically accurate, parts of Alabama were once officially called British West Florida. But lately, most people in Alabama know where Lower Alabama is--Pensacola and Panama City.; 2/14/14, 1:25 PM
ken in tx said...: It's the parts of Florida that are in the central time zone.; 2/14/14, 1:26 PM