Despite being on the Coast for vacation, Neil and Cheryl Prior didn’t seem to be that bothered by the unusual snowfall on Wednesday as they looked at the beach on the Lighthouse Pier at Porter Avenue in Biloxi. The Prior’s are visiting the Coast from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. They drove to Biloxi on Tuesday night. “I woke up, looked outside and said, ‘It’s foggy outside’ then I realized that it was snow!” Neil Prior said. ‘It’s just like Edmonton!’
Kevin Cooper
FILE PHOTO
Trying to guess if it’s going to be cold on Christmas in South Mississippi is much like taking a gamble on red or black at the roulette table inside a Biloxi casino.
Some years you can wear T-shirts and shorts to your family gathering, and others you have to bundle up with a jacket and boots before you can walk out the door.
Cold temperatures and frigid wind chills are not unusual in winter months on the Coast, but snow is a rarity. And when the frozen precipitation does fall on the Coast, it’s more common in January or February when temperatures are colder here.
Snowfall on Christmas Day in the Biloxi-Gulfport metro officially has not been recorded by weather officials, but locals do remember a few years of flurries and unusual weather events as Santa Claus comes to town.
The big freeze came on Dec. 23, 1989. Locals in the area remember seeing snow flurries on Dec. 25, according to Sun Herald archives.
A person is seen ice skating in the Mississippi Sound in Bay St. Louis on Dec. 23, 1989. Courtesy Diana Ladner
The Bay of St. Louis froze over in Cedar Point neighborhood on Dec. 23, 1989. Courtesy Diana Ladner
Cold temperatures break records on Christmas 1983
The coldest South Mississippi Christmas on record was in 1983 when it got down to a record 6 degrees in Pascagoula, according to the NWS.
“The 1983 air mass saw its coldest morning on Christmas Day with 11 observations dropping below 10 degrees,” the NWS said. Pascagoula was the coldest temperature recorded in Mississippi.
No snow was recorded that day, however, and something perhaps more unusual is that the high temperature on Christmas Eve that year was 70 degrees, the NWS reported.
A snowy December in Biloxi
Snow was reported on Christmas Day in 2004 across South Mississippi, marking it the only year on record where it was officially recorded.
An undated photo from the Sun Herald archives shows a couple from Canada walking down the snowy Biloxi Lighthouse Pier on Dec. 12.
“Despite being on the Coast for vacation, Neil and Cheryl Prior didn’t seem to be that bothered by the unusual snowfall on Wednesday as they looked at the beach on the Lighthouse Pier at Porter Avenue in Biloxi,” according to the Sun Herald report. “I woke up, looked outside and said, ‘It’s foggy outside’ then I realized that it was snow!” Neil Prior said at the time the photo was taken.
Despite being on the Coast for vacation, Neil and Cheryl Prior didn’t seem to be that bothered by the unusual snowfall on Wednesday as they looked at the beach on the Lighthouse Pier at Porter Avenue in Biloxi. The Prior’s are visiting the Coast from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. They drove to Biloxi on Tuesday night. “I woke up, looked outside and said, ‘It’s foggy outside’ then I realized that it was snow!” Neil Prior said. ‘It’s just like Edmonton!’ Kevin Cooper FILE PHOTO
Sun Herald reporters Mary Perez and Hannah Ruhoff contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 22, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
Justin Mitchell is the Sun Herald senior news editor and works on McClatchy’s audience engagement and development team. He also reports on LGBTQ issues in the Deep South, particularly focusing on Mississippi.
