Snow present in 49 of the 50 U.S. states
January 11th, 2011
04:38 PM ET

Snow present in 49 of the 50 U.S. states

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.

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Filed under: Weather • Winter weather
soundoff (695 Responses)
  1. Anabella T

    ur all a bunch of nerds fightin it up like "oh no actually global warming means blah blah blah blah blah!!!!" shut up! >:) global warming means global warming! so shut the freak up! more like shut the nerd up haha ur all fighin it up soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo gay!

    January 12, 2011 at 5:52 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Billy

    Well, I've seen snow in Florida as far south as Orlando and can remember the time when it got down to 19 degrees in Miami for about three hours in the 1980s, so they are not completely left out.

    January 12, 2011 at 6:16 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Phxguy

    Dude It snowed very briefly where i live. I'm in PHOENIX, AZ!!! Maybe the world really is ending?

    January 12, 2011 at 6:16 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Robert

    "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."

    Maybe records should be kept on something like this. It would be something to disprove all the global warming fanatics who cry out everytime someplace gets a heat wave.

    January 12, 2011 at 6:21 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Billy

    People Are so dumb!

    January 12, 2011 at 6:31 pm | Report abuse |
  6. boyy

    well florida is the best and, u dont nead florida becauce u cant go there,, u dont have the many to go there

    January 12, 2011 at 6:41 pm | Report abuse |
  7. Frank

    I know, let's all go start our cars and let then idle all day long, that way, the "warming" caused by our increased CO2 emmisions will help avoid snow storms! LOL
    If this is "Gobal Warming", I sure don't want to see what "Global Cooling" would be like.

    January 12, 2011 at 7:03 pm | Report abuse |
  8. J.A. Simon

    The Great Global Warming Swindle

    Length: 1:15:56

    The Ice is Melting, the Hurricanes are blowing. and it is all YOUR FAULT SCARED Don't Be, Its not True.

    Link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5576670191369613647#

    January 12, 2011 at 7:20 pm | Report abuse |
  9. cuddy1849

    Read a story about how magnetic north is moving towards Russia at a 40 mile a year rate, wont be long before Florida will be freezeing just like the rest of us.

    January 12, 2011 at 7:20 pm | Report abuse |
  10. cuddy1849

    BSU would have beat both them bum's , oh wait we have hahaha.... and we have lots of snow in Idaho.

    January 12, 2011 at 7:24 pm | Report abuse |
  11. John

    I laugh at global warming alarmists how they keep trying to push this fairy tale, 'now cooling is the new warming , whats next,I can hardly wait!!!

    January 12, 2011 at 7:29 pm | Report abuse |
  12. John

    Hey dont say anything bad about our awesome facist goverment our the brownshirts will be kicking down your door,

    January 12, 2011 at 7:32 pm | Report abuse |
  13. Gracie

    That darn global warming! Look what it's doing to our weather patterns. Yeah, right!!!! Has anyone seen Al Gore lately? He must be keeping a low profile.

    January 12, 2011 at 7:39 pm | Report abuse |
  14. Sophie

    HEAT WAAAAVE!!!!!!! XD

    January 12, 2011 at 7:42 pm | Report abuse |
  15. Michael R.

    Boy! Was Al Gore right! Look at all that Global Warming on the Ground! Don't touch that White stuff. I think it may be part of the ozone layer that fell to earth!

    January 12, 2011 at 7:42 pm | Report abuse |
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