Southern Snow
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It's the land of magnolias and plantations and summers as thick as molasses. But the South does see snow on occasion. Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook.

Let's draw an imaginary east-west across the Southeast where the odds are 50-50 that you'll be able to measure snow at least once in a given winter. That line would run roughly from Cape Hatteras, NC to Macon, Georgia, over to Shreveport, Louisiana, and then down to Waco, Texas. Those odds get a lot worse if you mosey just a bit farther south. Baton Rouge and Savannah only measure snow about once in every five years. The big difference is that these cities lie slightly closer to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf Coast IS a favorite spot for winter storms to crank up. Cold fronts race south from Canada then stall over the mild waters of the Gulf. Low pressure can then spin up on the dying front and pull moisture onshore atop the cold air. That's a recipe for snow, sleet, freezing rain, or just plain rain. It all depends on how deep or shallow the cold air is and how fast the system evolves.

Sometimes the cold air is just enough to support a shocking amount of snow in places where you'd least expect it. How about 20 inches in Houston? Or eight inches in New Orleans? An inch in Miami? It's happened! The only spot in the Southeast to never see snow? Key West.

Thanks today to Bob Henson who is writing these weeks series of shows on snowfall, around the country. Our show is underwritten by Subaru, the beauty of all wheel drive.