Did it snow in Jacksonville, FL in 1989?

On By Littum

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“It’s a winter wonderland in Jacksonville.”

On December 23, 1989, a freak snowstorm dropped nearly 2 inches of snow on Jacksonville and Northeast Florida, bringing the city to a standstill just before Christmas.

In Jacksonville, a city without snowplows or road salt, streets and bridges began to ice over on Dec. 22, and the next day, a Saturday, it began to snow, shutting down traffic on Jacksonville’s bridges, streets and highways.

Flights were canceled at Jacksonville International Airport. Buses were idling. Shops and churches closed. Even the delivery of Christmas cards was delayed. And in what could have been a scene right out of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” the Jacksonville Electric Authority even asked city residents to turn off their Christmas lights, the Times-Union reported at the time.

For others it was a “snow day”, a rare chance to go sledding, build a snowman or skate on the street.

It was the biggest snowstorm in history for the southeastern US coast (the coastal Carolinas sometimes got more than a foot), and records were broken everywhere. Even Miami froze on Christmas Eve.

The snow made national news when then-CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather showed video of the ice-covered Acosta Bridge.

Meteorologists knew the storm was coming, senior meteorologist Tim Deegan of First Coast News told the Times-Union years later. Long-range models showed “this atmospheric pattern that was so crazy you couldn’t dismiss it,” he said. “… And you had the whole East Coast going through Jacksonville going south (for Christmas visits) and those bridges were locked.”

“It was unexpected,” then-Mayor Tommy Hazouri said years later. “But who could ask for anything better than snow for Christmas?”

View photos from the 1989 Jacksonville blizzard

See more vintage photos of snow in Jacksonville

Matt Soergel of the Times-Union contributed to this report.