22 Jan 2025 Life Snow

Historic Gulf Coast Winter Storm 2025

A historic winter storm recently blanketed the Gulf Coast, delivering 4 to 6 inches of snow in the Auburn-Opelika area.

The storm that swept through our area yesterday was nothing short of extraordinary. I don’t think anyone anticipated it would turn out the way it did. Usually, when we get winter weather advisories, they tend to fizzle out—and most of the time, they do. But not this time.

We saw at least 4 to 6 inches of snow, starting mid-day Wednesday and continuing nonstop throughout the day. And it wasn’t just us in the Auburn-Opelika area of course; the entire Gulf Coast was blanketed by a historic winter storm. Social media was flooded with incredible images of snow-covered beaches—something you just don’t see.

The storm shattered records across the South. Florida experienced its heaviest snowfall in history when 8.8 inches was recorded in Milton, just north of Pensacola, breaking a 130-year-old record. Pensacola itself had last seen significant snowfall—3 inches—in 1895. Louisiana saw up to 9 inches of snow, with New Orleans recording 8 inches, a drastic increase from its previous record of 2.7 inches set in 1963. Mobile, Alabama, reported 7.5 inches, smashing its old record of 3.6 inches from 1973. Even Houston, Texas, saw 3 inches of snow on Tuesday, making it the city’s third snowiest day on record and the highest single-day total since January 30, 1949.

The storm also brought the first-ever blizzard warning to coastal parts of Louisiana and Texas. Governors across the region declared states of emergency as the rare winter weather disrupted daily life and left communities grappling with freezing conditions.

What made this storm even more remarkable for us was the combination of snow and extremely cold temperatures, such a rare thing for this far south. This morning, it was a frigid 16°F, and none of the snow had melted.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled about venturing out into the freezing conditions, but I braved the cold just long enough to snap a few photos to document our experience as witnesses to the historic 2025 snowstorm. Now the snow can go away so we can get back to riding our bikes again.