Snow and Freezes in Tampa

Snow has reached Tampa in measurable amounts in at least two National Weather Service records, the Arctic outbreak of February 1899 and the morning of January 19, 1977.

The National Weather Service office in Birmingham describes the Great Arctic Outbreak of February 1899: strong northerly winds between an arctic high and a storm system sent frigid air all the way down the Florida peninsula, with measurable snowfall occurring as far south as the Tampa area. The NWS Miami office adds that before 1977 the farthest south snow had been observed in Florida was along a Fort Myers to Fort Pierce line, also in February 1899.

The second record is better documented. The NWS Miami 40th anniversary summary states that Tampa measured .20 inches of snow on January 19, 1977, and that Plant City, east of Tampa, measured up to 2 inches. Those are the two measurable Tampa snows that NWS documents on the pages checked for this guide; lighter flurries in other winters left no NWS measurement on those pages.

On January 19, 1977, a fast Arctic front brought snow to every reporting station in north and central Florida, including 0.20 inches at Tampa.

According to the NWS Miami summary, the snow came on the heels of a strong Arctic cold front that moved rapidly down the Florida peninsula from late on January 18 through the pre-dawn hours of January 19. A strong arctic high over the lower Mississippi Valley pumped very cold air into Florida, and a band of clouds and precipitation tied to an upper level trough followed the front, so every reporting station in north and central Florida, Tampa included, recorded at least a trace of snow.

The same front carried snow much farther south than Tampa. NWS Miami reports snow across Southeast Florida as far south as Homestead and even on Miami Beach, West Palm Beach's first snowfall on record at 6:10 a.m., and snow reported by observers at LaBelle, Hollywood and the Royal Palm Ranger Station. It calls January 19, 1977, the first time snow fell in South Florida in recorded history, which makes the 0.20 inches at Tampa and up to 2 inches at Plant City part of a statewide event rather than a local fluke.

NWS Tampa Bay records that Tampa reached 18 degrees during the winter freezes of 1962, with Lakeland at 20 degrees.

The NWS Tampa Bay fact sheet on the 1962 freeze states that Tampa saw temperatures as low as 18 degrees and Lakeland 20 degrees. Citrus saw some damage, but the sheet singles out the loss of winter vegetables: cabbage, beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach were severely damaged, and three-fourths of the 70 percent of the winter cabbage still left to harvest was lost. Prices on snap beans more than doubled, along with sweet corn prices, and NWS calls the freeze the most damaging to trees and fruit of any 20th century freeze to that date.

The NWS sheet does not give a date for the 18 degree reading, and its newspaper acknowledgments are from January 1962. Spectrum Bay News 9 places the 18 degree reading at Tampa International Airport on December 13, 1962, and calls it the coldest temperature in Tampa's record. The two accounts differ on timing, so the date belongs to the Bay News 9 account, not the NWS sheet.

The 1894 to 1895 freezes ruined most of the citrus groves in Hillsborough County and cut Tampa's property tax revenue, according to the City of Tampa.

The NWS Tampa Bay fact sheet on the freezes of 1894 to 1895 explains why the season was so destructive: there were two severe freezes, in mid December and mid February, separated by an unusually warm spell. Groves damaged in December had pushed out tender new growth before the February freeze, which left them especially vulnerable. NWS adds that damage from these freezes and another in 1899 put many north-central and northeast Florida producers out of business.

The City of Tampa City Clerk biography of Mayor Robert W. Easley records the local cost. Easley was elected Tampa's 29th mayor on March 9, 1894, and during his term the winter freeze of 1894 to 1895 destroyed about 70 percent of the citrus crop in Florida. Most of the citrus groves in Hillsborough County and surrounding areas were ruined, and the city's revenues from property taxes declined in response. Easley and the City Council tried to provide some economic relief to citrus growers, but there was little they could do with a substantially reduced City Treasury. His term ended March 8, 1895.

NWS Tampa Bay lists 1835, 1886, 1894, 1901, 1905, 1918, 1934, 1957, 1962 and 1980 as landmark freeze years for the Tampa Bay area.

The list comes from the NWS Tampa Bay Preserve America weather history project, which the office built with the University of South Florida around two leather bound U.S. Weather Bureau books dating back to 1890, scanned and rebound, along with old weather maps, news articles and event summaries. Several of its freeze fact sheets give a Tampa reading.

The NWS sheet on the Christmas freeze of 1989 calls it the fifth impact freeze in Florida history and the second in a single decade, leaving growers little time to recover after the freezes of 1983 and 1985. The 1980 to 1981 sheet notes that vegetable prices rose as well, with tomatoes doubling in cost.

NWS Tampa Bay puts the long term average at three to six freezing days each winter across inland Central Florida and about one over Southwest Florida.

The NWS Tampa Bay winter outlook page states that freezing temperatures are possible into Central and South Florida during any winter, no matter the El Nino or La Nina phase. In El Nino winters the likely cause is cold air dragged south behind low pressure systems crossing the state; in La Nina winters it is mainly radiational cooling under clear skies and calm winds. For winter 2026 to 2027 the office expects a very strong El Nino and forecasts near normal temperatures and above normal rainfall for West Central and Southwest Florida, with a few freezes likely, especially on the Nature Coast, which it ties more to the Arctic Oscillation than to El Nino.

Early freezes are rare around Tampa. The NWS Tampa Bay first cool down tables, updated September 14, 2026, list these earliest freezes for Hillsborough County stations:

The same tables show how late the first real cool down comes to Tampa: the mean date of the first low below 60 degrees is October 19, with a record earliest of September 19, 1981 and a record latest of November 23, 2015; in 2025 it came on October 30.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, through a fresh read of the NWS Tampa Bay freeze fact sheets (1894, 1957, 1962, 1980 and 1989), its Preserve America, winter outlook and first cool down pages, the NWS Miami 1977 snow summary, the NWS Birmingham 1899 outbreak page, the City of Tampa Easley biography and the Bay News 9 1962 article.