Tampa community was surprised by snow 48 years ago

John Osegovic was only four when snow fell in Tampa Bay.
His memories are not of the snow. Instead, they are of his siblings retelling the story throughout their childhood.
The snow day became a household tale for his siblings, who were all born in New York and missed the snow, Osegovic, who teaches chemistry of sustainability at USF St. Pete, said.
“They talked about it for years, but they were also disappointed by how little snow there was,” he said. “It was a sort of dichotomy of being like, ‘Here’s something I haven’t seen since we moved down here and I didn’t think I’d ever see it again, but here it is.”
That day, January 19, 1977, was the first time snow was recorded in southern Florida.
A few northern Florida cities got record-breaking amounts of snow last week, with the highest amount reaching 10 inches. This surpassed the previous state record of 4 inches from 1954.
Related: USF students drove to FSU to see snow. And came back with a 250-pound snowball.
Joey Knight said he remembers that day in 1977 vividly because two “rare” occasions happened.
Knight, a longtime sports reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, said he remembers the event mostly because of a high school basketball game the night before in Zephyrhills, about 30 minutes northeast of Tampa.
The boys’ basketball team from Zephyrhills High School, where Knight’s dad was a teacher, beat Clearwater Central Catholic, the number one team in the state at the time.
“The thought was ‘Hell will freeze over before Zephyrhills beats Clearwater Catholic,’” he said. “No, it froze over after Zephyrhills beat Clearwater Catholic, because that night it snowed.”
Although he was more mesmerized and energized by the game than the snow, Knight said waking up and seeing the accumulated snow on the ground was memorable.
“It wasn’t just some light frost on the ground,” he said. “It was snow. You could put your hand in the grass and pick up a snowball.”
The Oracle reported that, by early morning, the USF campus was “thinly blanketed with a layer of snow” and bustling with students excited to play.
Bob Johnson, a business major at the time, told The Oracle he had gotten up at 4:30 a.m. to study when he saw the snow and ran outside.
There were also several reports of students running naked in the snow. Johnson said the streakers tried to get him to join.
“They all undressed behind the Beta pool and then ran through the quad,” he said. “They tried to undress me and drag me through with them.”
The snow piled up to 0.2 inches, with 1-2 inches in some areas around Tampa Bay. However, it didn’t take long for it to melt by mid-morning.
In the days leading up to the snowfall in 1977, temperatures got as low as 29 degrees Fahrenheit, with the snow day having a low of 27 F and an average of 33.5 F.
For comparison, the lowest temperature in January 2025 has been 34 degrees F.
James Ivey, an instructor of environmental science and sustainability studies at USF St. Pete, said the snow day in 1977 and the cold front Florida faced in 2025 are questions of weather, not climate.
“Climate is the long-term trend,” he said. “Weather is what’s happening when you walk out your door and it’s cold.”
Ivey said the overall trend for climate change is that “extreme weather events,” such as snow and more intense hurricanes such as Milton, will become more frequent.
Related: PHOTOS: USF Tampa before and after Hurricane Milton
Osegovic said he remembers it used to get colder than current temperatures as early as October. Because of that, he said the cold front has a hint of nostalgia.
“By Halloween, there would often be a cold snap, and usually it was chilly,” he said. “But now it’s just pleasant until November, December, sometimes January.”
The climate is easier to predict than the weather, Ivey said, so it’s hard to predict if it will ever snow in Tampa again.
“We may never have snow in Tampa, or we may have it a couple of weeks from now,” Ivey said. “That’s a weather thing.”