After big snow and ice events in the Southeast, Plains, and Midwest this week, 49 out of the 50 states currently have snow on the ground – yes, even Hawaii, where snow falls in Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea all winter.
The only state that has avoided this icy blast is Florida. Does that make you want to go on a nice, warm vacation to the Sunshine State? You're not alone.
Put another way, that means snow is present in 69.4 percent of the lower 48, which is more than double than December. This is extremely unusual, though it's hard to put a date on when this last happened because records aren't kept on this kind of event.
The National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center combines ground reports and images from satellites in space to determine how much of the country is covered in snow. That's what you see in the image above. The images tell how deep and widespread the snow is, and that's important not only for images like this one, but also for computer weather models, which use the data to generate accurate forecasts. Such forecasts were very useful in predicting this week's winter storms.
Earlier this week, two storms began to churn: one in the northern Plains and Midwest, and one in Texas. The southern winter storm took a track across the Gulf Coast, pulling warm, moist air over an extreme arctic blast that set up over the eastern half of the United States late last week. This provided fuel for the storm to carve a path of snow, sleet, and freezing rain from Texas to the Carolinas.
Here in Atlanta, we're still coated in snow and ice and probably will be for the next couple of days. No one in the Southeast escaped the wrath except, of course, Florida.
But it's not over. Now that the southern-track storm has moved into the Atlantic and is moving north, the other Midwest storm is going to merge with it, creating a Nor'easter event that could dump up to two feet of snow in the Northeast. Winter storm warnings and advisories have been posted for the event - 32 states have winter storm advisories issued, by the way.
Here's how the snow forecast breaks down for some major cities:
Washington DC: 2-4 inches
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 4-6 inches
New York, N.Y.: 6-12 inches
Hartford, Connecticut: 15-20 inches
Boston, Massachusetts: 12-16 inches
The snow and cold started early this winter and has been extreme for most of the country. Usually the Southeast avoids the blast, but not in 2011. We're all feeling a little "snowed in" this winter.
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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umm i live in florida and just because its not snowing doesnt mean its not warm i mean its cold as heck..
KILL THE STUPID
This map is not correct. There is no show in Oklahoma or aleast central Oklahoma were I currently reside.
The new Ice Age is coming. It will descend on the planet in about three or so years. If you thought that was too fast for an ice age to appear, your information would appear to be pretty old, circa 1970s or thereabouts, lethally old so to speak.
Sure I love the Snow, as a fond memory a Child would have and hold for in 1984 I was fortunate enought to move to Florida ... Sunshine, Water & No Snow ... Florida's Waterfront Lifestyle ... its All Year !
heyy, i am kiki, i am sittin here in animal sceience. i'm suppose to be looking up things about ocean pollution and polar ice cap. my day so far has been okay, but i guess thats only just the start of the day being that im in third period.! but anyways thanks you for letting me and helping by your website.
kiki richardson
I'm a resident in Orlando Florida and let me just add, i was at Universal studios two days in a row in shorts enjoying the beautiful weather!
high's of 70. i love it 
Excuse me, what was the topic again? Oh, there it is, at the top of the page.
I read an interesting article a few days ago. It said that because of gradual shifts over time the National Weather Service recalibrates its averages for daily temperatures and seasonal snowfall. Based on empirical observations I think events like this will be closer to the norm.
what does al gore have to say about this and the fact that at the global warming conference they had the 2 coldest days in history ...
i'm here in Minnesnowta and I believe that we are getting the most of the snow. It is a suprise to hear about the rest of the states getting snow that doesn't usually get it, but hang in there it could be alot worse. 2012 was a movie that depicted all of this and also The Dat After Tomorrow. What is the world coming to? An END............
Climate change is really from the CO2 venting off our beer!!! This has been going on for thousands of years now – when will we learn to stop drinking CO2 infused drinks
Of course, we could always gets cows to stop farting too – that would cut green house gasses 1/2
I love how all the idiots come out of the woodwork whenever there is an article about snow and rant and rave about how global warming is a scam. The fact of the matter is that global warming is just a small part of climate change, which is the main problem. Get real people
I am not surprised by the snow. Every couple of years, the same cycle begins again and you have a lot of snow. We didn't have that much snow the past couple of years, but this year has been amazing! We have a snow storm every week! No school, but I still have to shovel! There is nothing surprising about the fact that we have a lot of snow. It's all natural. The pilgrams lived through it, so did George Washington during the Revolutionary War. We'll just have to get by it and get used to it at some time. Who knows, maybe this year will be nothing compared to next year!
It is all due to global warming, LMAO!
THE HAVE A WEATHER MACHINE!