No this is not an April fools joke because it isn’t April, it is January 19th, 2008. This morning around 7:30 AM a buddy of mine called me and asked if we were in Michigan. Still being groggy from waking up I said “What?”. He then explained it was snowing outside. I expressed my concern that he was probably still drinking from the night before but sure enough I walked to the bay windows in my home office and low and behold SNOW!
I immediately grabbed my camera and took a few pictures. The last time it snowed in Hattiesburg, Ms was 22 15 years ago (according to my wife). It is truly something that is a rare occurrence in this part of the US. The snow is probably due to the really low temperatures the North is going through right now.
The reason this is a rare occurrence is the fact that we are only 60 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. For those of you geographically challenged here is a map showing the location.
How warm is it usually down here? Well let’s just say that last year around this time a bunch of us went camping at the river and watched the AFC and NFC championship games in HD while cooking out on the grill and wearing shorts. It was 72 degrees that weekend, sunny, and beautiful outside.
Here are some numbers to help cement this rare occurrence in your head. As you can see in the following weather statistics according to http://www.weather.com our average low temperature in January is 36 degrees with an average high of 60 degrees. Obviously too warm for snow.
Don’t worry, the snow will turn to a slush before too long and will be gone. Snow ice cream anyone?
If you want to see all the pictures I took, they are posted on Flickr.
UPDATE: Corrected years since it snowed.
At least it isn’t 7 degrees farenheit there like it is in MI. Your nose hairs freeze on contact when it’s that cold.