Snow here, snow there, snow everywhere! US gets snow in all 50 states.

Yahoo

27-01-2025

Last week's historic Gulf Coast snowstorm helped lock down a rarity in the U.S. as all 50 states have already seen accumulating snow this winter − and all 50 had some at the same time.
The power of the storm also created another rarity: Some Southern cities have seen more snow than their Northern brethren.
Florida and Louisiana are the two states where snow is most rare, and both were blasted with snow last week, Adam Douty, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, told USA TODAY.
"Snow is fairly rare in Alabama and Mississippi, but they see snow accumulate every two or three years," Douty said. "But for Louisiana, snow only comes about every five years. And in Florida it's more like once every 10 to 15 years."
Hawaii has had snow, too, but that is not a surprise. The Big Island's Mauna Kea volcanic summit saw its first snow in late October, according to weather.com. Snow is an annual occurrence at the summit that rises above 13,000 feet.
The last winter when every state received snow was in February 2010 − when every state also had snow at the same time. Douty said he doesn't think climate change and global warming are having an impact on the frequency of the event. The weather is getting warmer overall, but extremes are also more common, he said.
"There may not be any gains or losses in terms of seeing events like this, " Douty said. "And it happens so infrequently that will be hard to determine a pattern so soon."
Not only did Florida get snow last week, the state was slammed with record snow. The Pensacola area broke the state's 130-year-old record for total snowfall. The National Weather Service reported at least 5 inches in Pensacola and 10 inches in Milton, both breaking the previous Florida record of 4 inches set in 1954.
The National Weather Service called the snowstorm a once in a generation weather event. New Orleans had not seen measurable snowfall since 2009, but the airport recorded 8 inches. Lafayette, Louisiana, got 10 inches. Houston had the most significant winter storm since at least 1960 with some communities measuring 6 inches.
Some major northern cities have not seen as much snow all season as New Orleans and parts of Florida saw in a day. New York City has had 5.5 inches total this season, Philadelphia 4.9 inches. Even Chicago and Minneapolis are slightly under 10 inches. Parts of Alaska have been snow deprived thus far this season; Anchorage checked in at less than 5 inches.
This winter has seen "sustained cold" in the East, which we don't see very often, Douty said.
"The rest of winter, for a lot of Central and Eastern United States, we are looking at average temperatures near to a little above normal," Douty said. "And unlike the sustained cold we have seen, the temperature should be more up and down in coming weeks."
Long range forecasts can be tricky however. AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Lada wrote in October that "big changes will unfold during the opening weeks of 2025 as a new weather pattern will promote milder air and less snow across the eastern half of the nation." Much of the region, however, saw sustained cold and, from Virginia to the Gulf Coast, lots of snow.
New York City, Boston and Philadelphia have not had much snow so far but may still plenty. They were among cities Lada predicted to have more snow than last winter "in part due to more snow opportunities in February."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Snow here, snow there, snow everywhere! US gets snow in all 50 states.