Wintry Weather Events
Have you ever seen a river totally frozen over? That has not happened in this part of the country for many, many years. Every now and then it can get cold enough for that to happen though!
January and February may most often bring snow, but some Alabama’s biggest storms in history have come in other months! On the last day of 1963, December 31, it started snowing in northern Alabama, and by the next morning it had snowed over 19 inches in Florence. That is still the all-time heaviest snow officially on record in Alabama.
In March 1993, another heavy snowstorm blew through Alabama as a “blizzard.” They called it the “Storm of the Century,” and it really lived up to its name! between 13 and 22 inches of snow fell between March 12 and 13 of that year. With the wind blowing about 30-40 miles per hour, snow piled up in drifts as much as 10 feet high! It took more than two weeks for the snow to melt away entirely, and schools were closed for as much as 5 to 10 days in northeast Alabama.
Alabama can also have ice storms that shut the state down for days at a time. Ice storms happen when rain falls as a liquid, but it then freezes on a surface like trees, power lines, cars, and even roads when the temperature is below 32 degrees. The most recent ice storm in Alabama happened in late January 2005. Read about it here.
Winter Weather Numbers to Know...
Frosts & Freezes
When the weather first turns cold in the Fall, people in Alabama, especially our farmers, start to pay attention to threats of frosts and freezes. Frost is a light coating of ice that forms on plants, cars, and rooftops when the air temperature is near freezing (32º F). A Freeze occurs when the temperature drops to or below 32º F for a long enough time to harm plants. A hard freeze means several hours of temperatures below freezing. Click the maps below from the University of Alabama to see information about frosts in Alabama. The first frost is the first time in the Fall an area has a frost, and the last frost is the last time in the Spring you can expect to see frost.
Average First Frost Dates |
Average Last Frost Dates |
Alabama Snow!
It does not snow a lot here, but there are certain times of the Winter that are more favorable for snowy weather.
Alabama Snow Graph - Courtesy NWS Birmingham
The above graph shows that Alabamians gets most of our snow from January 1 through mid-February, and most of that comes in February! Some of our largest snows have come outside that time frame, including a big snowstorm in April 1987 that dumped 5 inches of the white stuff in Birmingham!
Alabama Cold Weather Records
Coldest temperature ever recorded in...
Alabama: -27º F in New Market (Madison County) on January 30, 1966.
Birmingham: -10º F on February 13, 1899
Huntsville: -11º F on January 21, 1985
Montgomery: -5º F in February 13, 1899
Muscle Shoals: -13º F on February 14, 1905
Most snow that ever fell in ...
Alabama
One Day: 19" in Florence (December 31, 1963)
One Month: 24" in Huntsville (1963-1964)
Birmingham: 13" March 12-13, 1993
Huntsville: 16" on December 31, 1963
Muscle Shoals: 12" on February 11, 1910
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