Forty years ago this week, the atmosphere rose like a tent pole off the coast of California, pushing high pressure deep into the frigid reaches of northern Canada and sending potent arctic air plummeting to the tropics.
The unusual pattern turned the polar jet stream into a twisting river of powerful winds sweeping south over the warm Gulf of Mexico and into South Florida where climate history was made.
On the morning of Jan. 19, 1977, snow fell in Palm Beach County.
It was the day before a peanut farmer would be inaugurated as the 39th president of the United States — a time before weather events were politicized, analyzed, dissected, sucked dry of magic and wonder.
In 1977, it was just snow in South Florida, and it was enchanting.
Joe Vidulich was a 27-year-old meteorological technician at the federal weather office then stationed at the airport. He said he was working the midnight to 8 a.m. shift on Jan. 19, and while snow was expected in Central and North Florida, he didn’t think it would make it to Palm Beach County and beyond.
“I went outside to take an observation and I noticed these particles flying by. At first I thought they were bugs, but it was snow,” Vidulich said. “I ran back inside so excited and my partner was sleeping in a chair. I said, ‘Wake up Bernie, it’s snowing.’ He said, ‘You must be drunk.’”