NEW ORLEANS — A rare and intense winter storm swept across Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday, striking cities like New Orleans and Houston with unexpected snowfall. This unusual weather closed down numerous highways, grounded nearly all flights, and led to the cancellation of classes for over a million students who are typically accustomed to losing school days due to hurricanes rather than snow.
The storm triggered the first-ever blizzard warnings for various coastal areas close to the Texas-Louisiana border while snowplows were actively prepared in the Florida Panhandle. The stunning transformation even draped the white-sand beaches of popular vacation destinations such as Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida, under a layer of snow. An influx of cold Arctic air had also descended upon a significant portion of the Midwest and Eastern U.S., intensifying the freeze.
Scenes of a snowy South struck observers as surreal, featuring snowball fights on a beach in Gulf Shores, children sledding in laundry baskets in Montgomery, Alabama, and adventurous individuals pool-tubing down snowy slopes in Houston. New Orleans showcased its unique character even in these wintery conditions with hilarious antics like urban skiing down Bourbon Street, a playful snowball skirmish involving priests and nuns outside a church, and people sledding on the snow-laden levees of the Mississippi River using kayaks, cardboard boxes, and even inflatable alligators.
High school educator David Delio, along with his daughters, had some outdoor fun combining creativity and snowfall by riding a yoga mat and a boogie board down the levee. “This is a white-out in New Orleans, this is a snow-a-cane,” he humorously remarked. “We have faced numerous hurricane days but never a snow day.”
Meanwhile, the nuns at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School had humorously urged their students to pray for a snow day last week, even referencing saints such as Our Lady of the Snows. Reverend Tim Hedrick, the priest of the church, remarked on the nuns’ playful interactions, featuring snow angels and a snowball fight that quickly went viral on social media platforms. “It’s a fun way to show that priests and sisters are humans, too, and they can have fun,” he added.
New Orleans witnessed its first snowfall in over ten years, with reports indicating more than five inches fell in parts of the city on Tuesday. This amount surpassed the previous record of 2.7 inches set on December 31, 1963. According to meteorologist Christopher Bannan from the National Weather Service (NWS), there had also been unverified reports of snow reaching ten inches in New Orleans back in 1895.
In Houston, the winter storm represented another drastic turn in the region’s erratic weather patterns. This came not long after Hurricane Beryl devastated the city in July, claiming lives and leaving many without power. Months later, the area experienced its heaviest snowfall in decades.
Flight operations were significantly disrupted as nearly 2,000 flights within the United States were canceled, with approximately 10,000 flights delayed, as per travel tracker FlightAware.com. Both airports in Houston halted operations on Tuesday, leading to a complete cancellation of flights at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans; however, airlines aimed to resume services by Wednesday.
Stranded traveler Alvaro Perez remained at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston after his flight to El Salvador was canceled, now rescheduled for Thursday. “I’ll just ride it out and stay here,” he stated.
As the storm approached, governors from states including Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and even Florida declared states of emergency, prompting many school districts to cancel classes. Some coastal communities in both North and South Carolina also planned school closures due to the inclement weather.
The NWS reported snowfall accumulations of up to four inches in the Houston area, while transportation officials noted that over 20 snowplows were deployed across almost 12,000 lane miles due to the lack of local snow removal resources. Authorities confirmed that one person had succumbed to hypothermia in Georgia, with forecasts predicting snowfall to extend through areas of northern Georgia, including Atlanta, into regions rarely exposed to such severe weather conditions.
Meanwhile, parts of the Florida Panhandle also turned to a winter wonderland on Tuesday. Tallahassee, Florida, last experienced snowfall in 2018 with a mere trace amount of 0.1 inches; however, the city had accumulated as much as 2.8 inches during the snowiest event recorded in 1958. “Believe it or not, in the state of Florida, we’re mobilizing snowplows,” stated Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Mobile, Alabama, saw more than five inches of snow, breaking its record for one-day snowfall of five inches dating back to January 24, 1881, and coming close to its all-time annual record of six inches set in 1895.
The blizzard warning that was issued was also a first for the region, according to meteorologist Donald Jones from the Lake Charles NWS office. Louisiana’s transportation workforce operated overnight to ensure that bridges and roadways remained safe despite reports from Louisiana State Police of over 50 automobile accidents, issuing pleas for residents to stay indoors.
This recent cold spell has roots in disturbances within the polar vortex, causing an influx of frigid air usually contained at the North Pole. Ice-cold conditions have remained persistent throughout the eastern two-thirds of the country, with snow covering the East Coast and individuals in the Northern Plains and up to Maine experiencing extremely low temperatures. The NWS indicated that temperatures would gradually return to normal by the end of the week.
A state emergency has been initiated in at least a dozen counties across New York, anticipating lake-effect snow accumulation of up to two feet and extreme cold temperatures in areas around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie through Wednesday.
Wind chill factors are expected to reach as low as minus 30 to minus 50 degrees throughout the Dakotas and the Upper Midwest until Friday, as forecasters cautioned about sub-zero wind chills spreading from the Central Plains through Wednesday night.
In Southern California, concerns about dry conditions and powerful Santa Ana winds linger, especially following recent wildfires that have claimed numerous lives and devastated thousands of homes.
