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| Screen grab of web cam showing snowball fights and dogs playing on snowy Bourbon Street, New Orleans. |
Snowfall records were shattered as near blizzard conditions swept what are normally balmy, palm tree-lined beaches.
New Orleans was buried beneath an official eight inches of snow, its largest snowstorm on record. Some sections of the city had more. Photos of a measurement in New Orleans' Garden District showed a solid foot of new snow.
The Washington Post was as gobsmacked as I was when I saw these weather observations out of New Orleans.
"A late morning observation from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reported a temperature of 27 degrees, heavy snow, 1/8 mile visibility - and three inches of snow on the ground. Two inches fell in one hour."
For at least seven consecutive hours heavy snow fell on New Orleans.
I saw one video showing a highway with zero visibility in snow and blowing snow. I thought I was watching one of those lake effect blizzards in Buffalo. It was a highway in southwest Louisiana.
Milton, Florida, not far from Pensacola, had 8.8 inches of snow, more than doubling the old record for largest snowstorm in Florida history. (The old record was four inches, also set in Milton). Pensacola, Florida and Baton Rouge, Louisiana each had 7.6 inches. Mobile, Alabama clocked in with 7.5 inches.
These shattered all-time records for snowfall in those cities.
For comparison, the 24 hour snowfall in Milton, Florida of 8.8 inches is much more than double the largest 24-hour snowfall in Milton, Vermont so far this winter, which was just 3.4 inches.
Many northern parts of the United States have had less snow this winter than parts of the Gulf Coast, which is insane.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota has had 6.2 inches of snow this entire winter so far, less than many Gulf Coast beach towns. Since December 1, Anchorage, Alaska has had 3.8 inches of snow (though to be fair, Anchorage did have some hefty snowfalls in late October)
DANGEROUS AFTERMATH
The Gulf Coast and Southeast snow zone is massive, running through most of the Texas coast, all the way through northern Florida and up into coastal Georgia and South and North Carolina.
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| Somebody's Florida vacation photo from Tuesday. |
The storm was departing and the last of the snow was departing the Southeast Coast, but the Gulf Coast is not out of trouble.
Tuesday was the fun day for most, as big and festive snowball fights broke out on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Airboats that normally cruise through marshlands were pressed into service as snowmobiles.
Families marveled at a snowstorm that they've never seen before and probably never will again unless they move north.
But all that snow is now sitting there. You can't drive anywhere. The Gulf Coast has elaborate and detailed emergency plans on what to do if a hurricane hits. Not so much with a snowstorm.
It's obviously seriously cold on the Gulf Coast, and they're not equipped to handle it. What if there's a fire or medical emergency? How will ambulances and fire trucks get to the scene?
As of last night, a 150-mile stretch of Interstate 10 was closed. New Orleans borrowed 14 snow plows from an Indiana company. Bucket loaders that normally shove sand off roads after hurricane storm surges were also pressed into service as snow plows in the region.
The snow is not going to immediately melt much. The forecast high temperature today in New Orleans today is 31 degrees. Clear skies, lighter winds and a snow covered ground brought the temperature in Mobile, Alabama down to a record-shattering 11 degrees this morning, with an expected "high" temperature today of 32 degrees.
Even more extreme, Lake Charles, in southwestern Louisiana was down to just 6 degrees above zero this morning. The previous record low for the date there was 18 degrees, so that's just incredible for them.
Lafayette, Louisiana, where nine inches of snow fell yesterday, was at just 4 degrees above zero early this morning. That is the coldest temperature on record for any date in Lafayette. New Iberia, Louisiana also set its all-time record low temperature at 3 degrees. So far, Beaumont, Texas has tied its all time low at 10 degrees.
That's what a clear night sky with snow cover will do to you. That's never happened before in these cities, hence the extreme cold.
Already, four deaths have been reported in the cold wave and snow, and I'm afraid that toll will rise.
Temperatures are forecast to rise into the low to mid 40s across the Gulf Coast Thursday and Friday, which will melt some of the snow. But streets will still be in rough shape with overnight freezes.
Finally, temperatures this weekend will be back in the normal upper 50s and 60s, which should make the last of the snow disappear.
WHY IT HAPPENED
You really need an exacting setup for this kind of weather event and it just so happened this time.
Big Arctic cold blasts come all the way down to the Gulf Coast from time to time. But usually. that frigid air crosses the coastline and enters well into the Gulf of Mexico. Any storms that try to form on the leading edge of the cold air usually are too far south to bring any kind of precipitation to places like New Orleans.
Or, the cold air stops just short of the Gulf Coast, so it's warm enough for rain, not snow.
This time, the leading edge of the frigid air stopped a short distance south of the Gulf Coast. As is often the case, a storm formed along the leading edge of the cold. The storm pumped humid air northward over the frigid air near the surface in just perfect alignment with the coastline.
The best moisture aloft and the best cold, moist air along the coast aligned perfectly to set up the snow.
I won't blame climate change for this. It was all probably a fluke. But some scientists say climate change does make the jet stream meander more, which can sometimes bring cold air oddly south, like in this case.
Also, the Gulf of Mexico waters are still unusually warm, which can be blamed on climate change. The warmer waters probably boosted the amount of moisture available to the storm, which increased the amount of snow that could fall.
Videos:
Blowing and drifting snow on the beaches of Louisiana and Texas, along with road havoc in the region. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that.
The music doesn't stop in New Orleans just because it snows. Here's a trumpet player in the city's blizzard. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.
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