Orlando has seen the longest cold snap in modern history. As we enter the twelfth day of freezing temperatures, Florida’s slogan as “The Sunshine State” is certainly amusing.
This past weekend, as Orlando was anticipating a slight chance of freezing precipitation and flurries—yes, flurries—the natives were restless. Facebook and Twitter were ablaze with messages of hope for snow. After all, if we are forced to deal with a long stretch of bone-chilling cold, why not?
Dude, where’s my snowman?
That’s exactly what I said. It was certainly what I wanted to see. While eagerly watching the weather reports Friday night with the anticipation of a kid waiting for Santa Claus, I knew I had to wake the kids early on Saturday.
During breakfast Saturday morning, while eating hot oatmeal, I was glued to the radar screen and weather reports. Typically, Floridians see rain-related colors on the radar—blue, red, orange and green—but the colors on Saturday were white and pink.
Snow and sleet, and they were on their way.
As the radar predicted the flurries and sleet to arrive in Orlando from the north by ten o’clock, this was an exciting morning. The television station began showing amateur photos of ice, snow and flurries—even a small snowman.
Cool, I thought with no intended pun.
As the weather front loomed, we were greeting with a wintry precipitation.
Sleet. Snow was a no-show.
The hope of building a snowman was rapidly melting away. Although I never got to see snow again in Orlando—the last time was in 1977—I did capture some footage of tiny sleet pellets falling on my car.
No snowman.
