Why are so many snowy owls showing up in places so far south from the Arctic?

boing
13

You might need an bird account to see it (not sure), but you can compare the range of sightings between 2013 and 2014 with these:

http://ebird.org/ebird/map/snoowl1?neg=true&env.minX=-117.1772658839053&env.minY=25.24891389445025&env.maxX=-53.93996119640531&env.maxY=47.073297980943295&zh=true&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=on&bmo=1&emo=2&yr=range&byr=2013&eyr=2013

http://ebird.org/ebird/map/snoowl1?neg=true&env.minX=-117.1772658839053&env.minY=25.24891389445025&env.maxX=-53.93996119640531&env.maxY=47.073297980943295&zh=true&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=on&bmo=1&emo=2&yr=range&byr=2014&eyr=2014

It’s kind of mind blowing to see that number of sightings of snowy owls in Jacksonville, FL.