Tropical And Winter Storms at the Same Time: How Strange Is That?

 Jon Erdman

Published: October 26, 2020

A winter storm in the southern Rockies and Southern Plains will continue into early Wednesday at the same time Zeta is forecast to approach the northern U.S. Gulf Coast.

How unusual is it to have a tropical cyclone threat and a winter storm somewhere in the U.S. at the same time? Turns out, those weather events have coincided a few times in recent years.

This situation typically occurs on the extreme starts and ends of the tropical and winter seasons. This case has the added unusual element of snow and ice from Winter Storm Billy affecting areas unusually far to the south for so early in the season, including West Texas and Oklahoma.

Here are a few examples from the past when winter and hurricane seasons clashed.

Mother's Day Weekend 2015

Mother's Day weekend 2015 featured virtually everything but the kitchen sink weatherwise: a winter storm, severe thunderstorms, flash flooding and tropical storm making a U.S. landfall.

Winter Storm Venus, Tropical Depression Ana, and severe thunderstorms in the Plains states are shown in this satellite image from the Suomi NPP satellite on May 10, 2015, at 2:15 p.m. EDT.

Other than a weird Groundhog Day 1952 South Florida landfall, Tropical Storm Ana was the earliest tropical or subtropical storm landfall on the Atlantic seaboard on record, according to senior meteorologist Stu Ostro.

Because it happened so early in the calendar relative to the Atlantic hurricane season, Ana's landfall happened during a time of year when the Rockies and High Plains can still get snowstorms.

Sure enough, Winter Storm Venus dumped up to 2 feet of snow in the High Plains.

As a result, we had an odd marriage of heavy snow and coastal flooding/beach erosion photos shared with us on Mother's Day.

19 inches of snow piled up in Crawford, Nebraska, while Tropical Storm Ana soaked Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina on May 10, 2015.

Superstorm Sandy - 2012

It's one thing to have an ongoing snowstorm somewhere else when a tropical cyclone is making landfall. It's quite another for the tropical cyclone itself to initiate a snowstorm. In this and many other respects, Superstorm Sandy was odd and exceptional.

Yes, Sandy was "officially" no longer a tropical cyclone as it roared ashore in New Jersey in late October 2012.

However, this former hurricane produced an epic snowstorm in the Appalachians, where the air was just cold enough when intercepted by Sandy's moisture.

Up to 3 feet of snow fell in the Appalachians of West Virginia and North Carolina. Some roofs collapsed due to the weight of the wet, heavy snow in parts of West Virginia. Two died trying to shovel the feet of snow.

Members of the West Virginia Army National Guard traveled to an apartment complex in Summersville, West Virginia, to assess the structural damage incurred after Superstorm Sandy brought over two feet of snow to the mountainous region.

Sandy was the only storm in which you could find a discussion of a snowfall forecast within each National Hurricane Center advisory as it was nearing landfall.

If that wasn't enough, just over a week later, Winter Storm Athena brought snow and lingering cold to areas heavily damaged by Sandy.

Any Other Recent Cases?

Tropical Storm Tammy (Oct. 5-6, 2005) meandered near, then tracked into the Florida peninsula. As that occurred, the season's first snow fell in Billings, Montana (10.8 inches), and Minot, North Dakota (4.5 inches).

Hurricane Irene (Mid-October 1999) tracked over South Florida, then tracked just offshore of the Carolinas. Light snow was blanketing parts of the Rockies, including Cheyenne, Wyoming (3.3 inches); Casper, Wyoming (5 inches); and Denver (4.8 inches).

Hurricane Gordon (Mid-November 1994) tracked through the Florida Peninsula not once, but twice (though as a tropical storm and depression). As Gordon ramped up to a hurricane off the southern North Carolina coast, powerful low pressure cranked up near the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. Bismarck, North Dakota picked up 6 inches of snow, while Grand Forks tallied 3.5 inches.

Daily weather map from Nov. 18, 1994, illustrating Tropical Storm Gordon off the coast of North Carolina (red circle) and the strong low-pressure system responsible for snow in the northern tier of states (blue circle).

May 14, 1916: A tropical storm was tracking up the spine of the Florida peninsula as a multi-day snowstorm was pounding parts of the northern High Plains. Lead, South Dakota, in the northern Black Hills, picked up 41 inches of snow from May 12-16, including 8 inches on the day of the Florida tropical storm landfall.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.