Snow on Navarre Beach? Impossible you say? Well today, I witnessed it with my own eyes! The Florida Panhandle experiences some light snow just a few rare times each decade. The last time, was seven years ago. This historic snow storm was just like being back home in Utah again.
I was working in my office when I looked out the window and was shocked to see snowflakes descending from the skies above. At first, they were just flurries, I thought to myself, awe, that will be short-lived. But as time wore on, the snow came down heavier and heavier. This is when I decided I had better get to the beach and document this.
I was also surprised that my Rover was well covered in snow when I left, the windows were iced over and presented quite a challenge to clean. After all, I left my snow scrapper in Utah when I moved to Florida!
As I walked down the boardwalk, it was evident that I wasn’t the only one with the idea of documenting the snow. There were a good 6- 8 groups of people all taking pictures and playing in the snow. This was after all, an historic event.
As I stood on the beach this afternoon, it was coming down fast. Even with the wind blowing it to-and-fro, there was still 1-2 inches of fresh snow covering the white sand. I had dressed warm and could not believe how many were dressed in Florida attire and seemed to be enjoying freezing to death!
I walked from one side of the Navarre Pier to the other, attempting to document not just the beauties of the snowfall, but the historic nature of the event!
It snowed the entire time I was there. The irony is that my favorite image (The one above) is one that does not show the snow flakes. I must have captured it at a clear moment as the wind blew the snowflakes another direction. You can however see the snow in the foreground.
I took pictures until I could no longer feel my fingers. It’s funny, these gloves worked just fine in the west’s cold winters. There is no under-estimating the penetrating cold we have here (for the short period of time we have cold, that is).
Tomorrow is supposed to drop another 5 degrees in temperature, but not as much chance of snow. Who knows, next week we could have sunny and 70 degrees!
All Images taken by the author © Randy G. Barney Photography