Most of north Florida is preparing for the impacts of a rare and potentially historic winter storm that is bringing snow and ice to the area, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday.
DeSantis held a news conference Tuesday morning to give an update on the state's preparations for the storm, which he said was expected to bring a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain later in the day and into Wednesday.
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WATCH HERE"We used to think Blizzard Beach was a theme park in Orlando, it turns out that we may see some snow on our beaches throughout northwest Florida and even into Tallahassee and beyond," DeSantis said.
Starting to see a few reports of sleet/light-snow across our southeast Alabama counties as the dry air begins to erode from falling winter precipitation. Coverage of snow should begin to increase over the next few hours across the Panhandle southeast Alabama. #FLwx #ALwx #GAwx pic.twitter.com/Gincc5BzJM
— NWS Tallahassee (@NWSTallahassee) January 21, 2025
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DeSantis said the forecast called for 2 to 4 inches of snow in some areas but said some local accumulation could reach 6 inches.
"I've asked my guys to go back and look at the historical record and we've never had six inches accumulate in Florida based on the information that we had, so that's something that would be very, very noteworthy," DeSantis said.
Florida State University and Florida A&M University closed their campuses Tuesday and Wednesday due to the winter storm, and the University of Florida will cancel classes and close offices from midnight until 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
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In an Instagram post, the Florida Highway Patrol said at around noon Tuesday that snow had already started to fall in Pensacola.
DeSantis had declared a state of emergency on Monday for the storm, and said there were extreme cold warnings, winter storm warnings and cold weather advisories in parts of the Panhandle and other areas of north Florida.
The state has been busy preparing roadways ahead of the storm, de-icing bridges and positioning heavy equipment including snow plows and generators, DeSantis said.
Despite the preparations, DeSantis said road conditions could be hazardous and urged people to stay off roadways in the storm's path if possible.
"We're not necessarily used to walking in a winter wonderland here in Florida," he said. "Our infrastructure is designed differently than states that are used to this, if this were South Dakota they would just shrug their shoulders."
