It was so cold on Christmas 1989 that you could ice skate on the Bay St. Louis beach
The Mississippi Coast won’t see snow for Christmas this year, but it’ll be the coldest it’s been here in decades as Santa Claus comes to town.
Snow flurries are possible for Hattiesburg area, and temperatures will be below freezing on the Coast as an Arctic blast blows through.
And like Taylor Swift says on the “Midnights” album, snow on the beach can be “weird but ... beautiful,” — and it’s happened a few times over the last four decades in the Gulfport-Biloxi metro.
But do you remember when it was so cold that the Mississippi Sound froze and some even ice skated on the beach?
That’s what happened on Dec. 23, 1989, according to weather archives and accounts from local residents.
An Arctic air mass hit the Gulf Coast region beginning on Dec. 22, 1989, the most brutal in recent history, according to the National Weather Service.
The frigid weather lasted through Christmas Day, with 24 readings in the Gulf region under 10 degrees. Baton Rouge reported a temperature of 8 degrees on Dec. 23, 1989.
It didn’t snow on the Coast that year, but it was so cold that ice covered the area and even froze part of the Bay of St. Louis.
Coast resident Diana Ladner still has photos from that day when the water froze and someone was even brave enough to ice skate. Ladner provided photos to the Sun Herald from the Bay St. Louis beach and the Cedar Point area.
“It was 11 degrees for over two days,” Ladner said on Facebook. “(We) were told it was hard for salt water to freeze, but it did.
The weather on Christmas weekend 2022 will not be as brutal, the National Weather Service says, but Coast residents should still prepare for frigid wind chill and protect plants, pipes and pets.
Sun Herald reporter Mary Perez contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 2:03 PM.
