Cold wave of January 1977

Beginning on January 16, a strong arctic cold front began crossing the state of Florida. Two days later, another cold front crossed Florida, while a strong arctic high-pressure system over the Mississippi River Valley also began pushing cold air into Florida. Simultaneously, an upper-level trough associated with the second cold front contained a band of clouds and precipitation. Between 8 and 9:30 am, snow flurries were reported in several areas outside Miami. The National Weather Service office in Miami reported that an observation at nearby Lake Worth reported a trace of snow on the ground at the 9:00 am observation (it was gone by the 10:00 am observation). This was the source of the trace of snow at Miami in 1977. It was reported that people stopped their cars and emerged from their homes to see the snow in great numbers, many having never seen snow flurries in their lifetimes. That day the high only reached 47 °F (8 °C) in Miami. The associated cold air began to subside on January 21. ==Impact==

Florida Flurries were seen in the air and on the ground a trace was reported at both Tampa and Plant City. West Palm Beach reported flurries in the air at 11:10 UTC (6:10 a.m. EST) on January 19, and lasted for 1 hour and 50 minutes, ending at 13:00 UTC (8 a.m. EST). Simultaneously, snow flurries began falling in Broward and Dade counties; At Homestead, a mix of light rain and wet snow flurries fell briefly at the Homestead Air Force Base, Prior to this event, the southernmost snow record for Florida was in Fort Myers in February 1899. Across the state, record low temperatures were reported. For much of the state, temperatures remained below freezing for 10–14 hours, and at or less than for at least four hours. and was later surpassed by a mere during the Winter 1985 Arctic outbreak. A record low temperature of was reported in Orlando. Few other records were broken in North and Central Florida. In the Tampa Bay Area, temperatures hovered around the upper 20s (~-2°C). Due to significant losses related to the freezing temperatures, then-President Jimmy Carter, who was inaugurated on January 20, The South Areas of the eastern United States outside of Florida were also affected by the cold wave. In Georgia, the temperature fell to in Atlanta on January 17. Overall, the mean low temperature in the city during the month of January was , well below the average of . In Tennessee, the Public Service Commission estimating that approximately 100,000 people would be forced to miss a day of work due to closures, while nearly 2,000 people in southern West Virginia were left without heat as a result of interruption of natural gas service. and the temperature fell below for one of the few times in the city's history. Midwest January 1977 is the coldest month on record in the state of Ohio, with an average temperature of . Snowfall was above average throughout the month and the all-time record low of was set in Cincinnati. The Ohio River froze solid for the first time since 1918, halting commercial shipping for weeks. Some parts of northern Ohio stayed below freezing for the entire month. Temperatures did not rise above freezing the entire month in a swath from eastern Iowa to western Pennsylvania northward. The cold wave was named the top story of 1977 in the Associated Press's annual poll of the year's biggest news stories. ==See also==