A person walks down a snowy Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, on Tuesday.
Gérald Herbert/AP
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Gérald Herbert/AP
Blizzards along the Gulf Coast are normally only experienced at a Dairy Queen. But on Tuesday, for the first time ever, a National Weather Service office in southwest Louisiana issued a blizzard warning for a number of counties and parishes.
“Words I never thought would come out of my mouth,” meteorologist Donald Jones said during a briefing from the NWS office in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The blizzard warning — meaning residents can expect frequent wind gusts of 35 mph, with visibility likely limited to less than a quarter mile — covers two Texas counties and six Louisiana parishes . This comes as a long stretch of the South faces extreme cold, sleet and snow this week.
As of Tuesday morning, Jones said, snow totals ranged from 1 to 3 inches and more, “and there will be more over the next few hours.”
Snow was also falling Tuesday morning in New Orleans, where the NWS office says the region could see freezing temperatures throughout the week.
According to an update from NWS meteorologist Kevin Gilmore, “wind chills in the teens and possibly even low single digits” will hit an area including New Orleans, Baton Rouge and southwest Mississippi.
Stephanie Cain, left, and her daughter Sophia, 6, make snowballs near downtown Houston as a winter storm brings heavy bands of snow and sleet Tuesday. Forecasters say Houston and nearby areas could see 3 to 6 inches of snow.
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Danielle Villasana/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Wednesday will be the coldest morning, with the temperature forecast at 22 degrees in New Orleans, Gilmore said, urging people to limit their time outside.
Emergency officials say people need to take steps to protect water lines, pets, their plants and each other from freezing. Local and state governments are opening warming centers and warning drivers to be wary of dangerous roads that could be covered in ice.
“The roads could be very dangerous,” said Eric Bullard of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, according to Mississippi Public Broadcasting. “So don’t go out if you don’t have to. Stay home.”
Winter storm is felt from Texas to North Carolina
The winter storm is creating dangerous conditions for millions of people from southern Texas to northern North Carolina. As thermometers plunged Tuesday morning, health warnings and road closures increased, but people also seized a rare opportunity to see their neighborhoods covered in snow — and go sledding.
“There’s something really remarkable about leaving your house and going out in the snow,” Houston resident Patrick Van Pelt told Houston Public Media. He added: “It seems like every 10 or 12 years we’ll get snow, but never in a place where I would consider sledding.”
The storm is fueled by a unique mix of arctic air descending from the north, as a low pressure system draws large amounts of moisture ashore from the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting winter storm’s track is similar to a tropical storm, as it traces an icy path from the Gulf Coast to Georgia and the Carolinas.
In the Florida Panhandle, Pensacola is expected to see its first measurable snow since 2014, according to member station WUWF.
A century-old oak tree in New Orleans City Park received a rare dusting of snow Tuesday.
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Jack Brook/AP/AP
As the system moves east, heavy snow will spread Tuesday afternoon across southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia, with the NWS office in Tallahassee forecasting 3 to 4 inches of snow.
On Monday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency until Jan. 28, member station WABE reports. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also declared a state of emergency, according to member station WFSU.
Forecasters have been warning for days about the storm’s potential impacts — but even though it passed Tuesday, experts warned that some forecasts remained uncertain.
For example, the NWS office in Peachtree City, Georgia, says snow and freezing rain are likely to persist due to extremely low temperatures. But he adds that for much of Georgia, frozen precipitation will have to fall through a lower layer of dry air, making it difficult to predict accumulated amounts.
