Normally, Tuesdays at our house are pretty chill, particularly once Winter rolls around. major dad and I get done with work, get 'the farm chores done' (as we have dubbed feeding the inside and outside zoos), and usually Dr. Alice comes over for dinner. 

After we get done eating, she and I will settle in for another thrilling episode of The Curse of Oak Island while my long-suffering husband tries to find somewhere in the house free of the sound of 'Oh, look! It's another bobby dazzler!'  or the admittedly annoying narrator saying, 'A corroded BUTTON?! COULD IT BE...?!' as if it were the most important discovery next to that of peanut butter and chocolate.

This past Tuesday was a bit different. Now, I'd had hints something out of the ordinary was possible when the meteorological computer programs started showing lines of pink or even teased blue across our area about two weeks ago.

Being especially fond of cold weather and frozen precipitation, I shot a message to Ebola, our resident, on-call (and Air Force's finest) meteorologist, who told me, oh, yeah. With what he was seeing coupled with GFS modeling, some sort of frozen something was more probable than possible, and he told me, 

'If that line drops far enough south, you're gonna get a helluva lake effect snow event off of the Gulf.'

We all got a good giggle out of that.

What were the odds, right? But it was still cool to think about it.

Anything hitting the ground here is, as our former POTATUS once said, a BFD. We'd take it.

By Monday, we were all in batten-down-the-hatches mode as the forecasts became more and more certain, and what looked like a fringe event for our area started to zero in on us. Our estimated snow totals crept up from mixed sleet/rain to a dusting of 2 inches, and suddenly, there was no sleet, just a pure snow event.

The temperature projections - ay dios mio. In the low teens. Around these parts, most businesses have their pipes exposed outside, and half the fun after a freeze is going around to see all the spectacular frozen displays as water pipes or valves blow. Many houses, including our own, are built with little to no insulation in the exterior walls, which is also ludicrous, but that's how these people roll.

But both of us came from wintery weather childhoods, so getting ready was no big deal. My only concern was how to keep all our ferals warm in truly frigid temps. I have self-warming blankets in their bungalows, but gracious, it didn't seem like enough. Ebola had the brilliant idea to use those HotHands hand warmers, so we managed to get a couple of cases on my Monday and found lots of old dress socks to tuck them in when the temps started to plunge.

Tuesday morning was gloomy. The base was open, so major dad went off to work. In between stories here, I double-checked kittehs and water...and watched the weather turn west of here, and our temps started a steady, downward slide.

I also had to explain to only-been-here-a-year from SoCal Dr. Alice that Oak Island night was canceled because even though she has 4WD, all the bridges around here shut down when it gets icy, and that's Every Last Bridge. Which is a pain in the tuchus because every road has a bridge - you can't get there from here in Pensacola without going over bridges. She would never get home.

Much safer to stay snug at her house.

The snow started about noon, transitioned shortly afterward to those big flakes that meant the storm meant business, and never stopped for nine hours.

Within two hours, the grass was almost completely covered, and we were in whiteout conditions at times.

The inside kittehs found the activity outside very intriguing.

Florida kitteh finds snowfall bemusing.#WestPensacola #Snowmageddon pic.twitter.com/Hw2FDPD9Ey

— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) January 21, 2025

By 5 pm, the local Mobile station reported that Pensacola and Mobile had both shattered one-day snowfall total records set in 1895. We had been 3". We already officially had five on the ground and another four hours left at least of the storm to go.

By 6:30-7:00, the snow was climbing up my little lights in the front yard, who bravely came on anyway.

Bless my little lawn lights' hearts. pic.twitter.com/QjKK1pDv2l

— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) January 22, 2025

About the same time, word came that a 65-mile stretch of Interstate 10, from 5 miles inside the FL state line to 70 miles east of us, was shut down to traffic.

IMPORTANT I-10 CLOSURE ALERT: As of 7:15pm EST, Interstate 10 (I-10) has been CLOSED from Mile Marker (MM) 5 (Nine Mile Road) in Escambia County to MM 70 (State Road 285) in Okaloosa County due to hazardous winter weather conditions. Please seek alternative routes until further… pic.twitter.com/LrQdx7Yda1

— FLORIDA DOT (@MyFDOT) January 22, 2025

WHAT A MESS

It snowed for another two hours.

Ebola's lake effect prediction had come to pass - totally why he's our weather guru.

When it finally let up, we could get out to take stock, check on the ferals, and count the over eight inches of holy smokes, look at all the SNOW!

It. Was. GLORIOUS.

And cold as schnoodles the next morning, again as predicted.

Didn't seem to bother everyone out experiencing their first snow, though.

Florida Scottie checks out her very first snowfall.

Magnolia gives it two frozen 🐾 up! pic.twitter.com/UM4zrmsR7z

— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) January 21, 2025

All the ferals, even the 'old man,' came through fine with the aid of the hotpacks, so thank God.

And everything has reopened here today. The ice is the problem - we have no spreaders, no sanding trucks. The city itself managed to contract for some, but we're country folk. Just the way it is.

Stay home 'til it gets better.

Many thanks go out to Florida Power and Light, the guys at Pensacola ESP (the city natgas utility), and AT&T fiber. Extended periods of wretchedly, dangerous cold weather and frozen goodness and never a burp in any service. Not a single one.

So here's a pretty wild list 🤯...@mynbc15 pic.twitter.com/kyiWzR5EFW

— Thomas Geboy (@ThomasGeboyWX) January 23, 2025

It really was magical. I'm so glad we were here for it.

My friend Sean does the most amazing videos of our area, and he's put together a gorgeous little memento of our historic adventure. I'll leave you all with that.

Welcome to Florida, Alice.

Happy Global Warming!