Will it snow in Tampa?

TAMPA - The photos are from January 19, 1977 taken here in Tampa, and if the outfits don't give the date away, the white stuff on the ground in the pictures surely will -- it was the day snow fell in Tampa Bay.

"That was disco years and bell bottoms; staying alive, staying alive yeah," remembers Bay Area resident Dave Stone.

Thursday, outside The King Corona Cigar Bar in Ybor City, one group of guys remembers that day. For a couple of them, it was the first time they ever saw snow.

"The ground was covered. The car was covered and at that time we bundled them up and we started making snow balls and having a snowball fight so it was really great," according to Jose Rodriguez who remembers the snow fondly.

News clippings from that day tell a wild tale. It was less than one half of an inch of snow, but in a city where palm trees and sunshine are staples, that half of an inch may as well have been a foot.

"It was a novelty and just like exciting you know?" Stone said.

Pictures show the Howard Frankland Bridge looking like a ghost town with a light dusting of snow after it was closed that day for a while.

According to headlines, camera film sales soared as people rushed to capture the moment.

A Brooksville man has some of the best evidence and has since posted it to You Tube, snowball fight and all caught on video.

Maybe it's the extended cold snap -- maybe it's wishful thinking, but talk of snow is surfacing again this week. FOX 13 chief meteorologist Paul Dellegatto says if, and only if, it were to happen, it could be this weekend.

"It's not completely impossible. I'll say that. The problem is in this state it snows once every 30 years and so many things have to come together just perfectly. I mean it has to be cold, the moisture has to be in the right place. It could happen -- but probably not," Dellegatto said.

For the guys outside King Corona the thought of snow again in Tampa is a welcome one. It's sort of the best of both worlds, almost.

"In regards to this coming weekend, if it happens, I think it would be pretty neat, although it might put a damper on my golf plans," said Steve Heckler who moved south decades ago.

1977 wasn't the only year Tampa has seen snow in the last 35 years. In 1989 there were flurries, but nothing that stuck to the ground. Before 1977, the last real snow fall was in 1899.