Has it ever snowed in Naples or Fort Myers? Our 2018 story tackled this popular question

As some Floridians are bracing themselves for the possibility of snow falling in the Sunshine State this week, we decided to revisit a story published by The News-Press and Naples Daily News back in 20XX that answered this question:

Has it ever snowed in Fort Myers or Naples?

On Jan. 3 2018, environment reporter Chad Gillis wrote this story that answered that question for those who were wondering about what would be nothing short of a metrological miracle.

In his story, which happened to be written the week snow was recorded in northern Florida, Gillis reported the following:

National Weather Service records (dating back to 1902) say it has never snowed here, although there are newspaper reports from the 1800s that say snow fell in Fort Myers in 1899. Snow has fallen as far south as the Tampa area, like it did in 1977, but the Fort Myers area is just too far south to get any appreciable accumulation, meteorologists say. 

In short, not a snowball's chance in ....

The bottom line, according to expert meteorologists with the National Weather Service (NWS): we are just too far south for any realistic chance of seeing any white stuff flying around.

Gillis's story went on to say:

The record low for any day in January is 27 degrees for Fort Myers, and most daily records for the Fort Myers area in January are below freezing.  But it didn't snow on any of those days because Fort Myers and Naples sit along the coast and are too far south for some cold fronts to even reach, much less produce snow. 

"The atmosphere is just too warm," Noah said. "South Florida is just too far south to get that much cold air aloft. It’s more of a subtropical environment."

Social media platforms like Facebook have been filled with posts about possible snow coming to Florida this week. The ultra-popular Mike's Weather Page on Facebook has gone from talking about hurricane models to snowfall models.

It is expected to be "cold" in Southwest Florida this week. AccuWeather is forecasting only highs in the low-60s until Saturday (Jan. 25).

Further north in Florida, there could actually be snow or ice or a combination of both.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Florida snow: Has it ever snowed in Naples or Fort Myers?