Strange Phenomena in the Indiana Sky & Snow Flurries Fly in Florida

Thanks to Kim Clute in rural Otterbein

Hello my name is Kim Clute. I took this picture standing out my back door today. Not for sure what it is but there were three of these on the horizon this morning, (spaced far enough from each other that I could not get them all in on screen), January 2nd, 2008. They were so pretty, I just happened to notice them as I was looking out the door.

Rainsville Sundog during Wednesday's Sunset

There have been several weather phenomena reported in the Lafayette skies since 2008 arrived. The two pictures above are examples of sun dogs and can be traced to our air mass originating from near the Arctic Circle. This very cold air mass produces millions of hexagonal or 6-sided ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. These ice crystals fall through the atmosphere like leaves face down causing sunlight to be refracted or bent producing amazing optical effects. These ice crystals are essentially acting like mirrors and that is why Kim saw 3 bright objects in the sky.

The one bright object was the sun while the two other objects were reflections of the sun on each side of it. Sun dogs are most common in the winter but you can see these phenomena during the warmer months as well here in Lafayette, although they are less common. The best time of day to look for sun dogs or mock suns is close to sunrise or sunset.

There have also been reports of sun pillars in the sky around the area which is more of a common sight for places like Alaska. These are formed by ice crystals that are formed closer to the ground in extremely cold weather. Usually you need single digit temperatures and sub-zero weather. These ice crystals not only flutter through the air like flat pancakes, but they are all lined up perfectly allowing the sunlight to be reflected straight up into the sky like a spotlight. Although my camera did not do a very good job capturing it i will make sure to post a picture from last year during one of our cold spells and even show it on the news tonight.

In the meantime, please bundle up. Nature is giving us plenty of signs in the sky to take care of ourselves.This is frostbite weather with wind chills from -10 to -20 frostbite is possible in as little as 40 minutes first thing this morning. Here is the frostbite chart below. Protect any exposed skin, your pets, and your pipes.

Talk about a cold pattern. Freeze warnings extend all the way down to Florida. Last night I called home and made sure my Mom and Dad in Jacksonville realized how close they were to seeing snow. Here was a radar snap shot just after 1 a.m. this morning.

I think the blue radar echoes depicting snow flurries in this picture will actually make it to the Florida coast between Daytona Beach and Cape Canaveral. I will have a Florida snow update here on the blog today.

Florida Snow Update:

My forecast of snow in Florida has been confirmed this morning check out the proof! It was the first report of snow in Florida since 2006. You can see the graupel snowflakes that fell on car rooftops in Daytona Beach and it was confirmed by an official National Weather Service storm report out of Melbourne, Florida.


Courtesy of Janet Wolfe
Tamoka Farms Rd. Daytona Beach, Florida

This type of snow you see in the above picture is formed the same way lake-effect snow is formed here in the Midwest. Very cold air going over the warmer ocean creates what is called ocean-effect snow. Temperature differences of an astounding 40 degrees was observed between the warmer ocean and the lower 5,000 feet of the atmosphere this morning near the Florida coastline. This created plenty of instability and it was the big reason Florida had snow this morning!

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL

912 AM EST THU JAN 03 2008..

VOLUSIA FL BROADCAST MEDIA

SEVERAL REPORTS OF SNOW FLURRIES FROM ORMOND BEACH TO DAYTONA BEACH AND PORT ORANGE. FIRST FLURRY REPORTS AT APPROXIMATELY 730 AM IN ORMOND BEACH AND STILL OCCURRING AS OF 905 AM IN PORT ORANGE. SNOW FLURRY REPORTS WERE RECEIVED FROM DAYTONA BEACH OBSERVER.

There are also strange reports of iguanas dropping out of trees near Miami due to the unusually cold weather. I will check into it. The one bit of good news is that the wind stayed up overnight in Florida keeping temperatures a little warmer and saving most of the produce crops. It was still the coldest night in 5 years in Tampa.

Developing.....