Rare blizzard hits US south, causing mass flight cancellations
A rare winter storm is bringing snow and freezing rain to parts of the US far South, closing highways and airports in Texas and prompting the first blizzard warnings in southwest Louisiana.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said Tuesday that the Gulf Coast, where hurricanes are also a rare sight, will see historic snowfall, with an inch or more of snow expected per hour from East Texas through the western Florida Panhandle.
More than 2,200 flights within the US were canceled and more than 3,000 were delayed on Tuesday, according to online tracker Flight Aware.
In the north of the country, parts of New York state are being hit by another storm, blanketing the area with up to 18 inches of snow.
The NWS is forecasting “heavy” lake effect snowfall, and advised residents to avoid travel if possible.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Monday that she has declared a state of emergency in a dozen counties in Western New York as communities continue to face snow and extreme cold.
Buffalo’s mayor, Christopher Scanlon, declared an additional state of emergency himself, closing City Hall and closing Route 5, the Buffalo Skyway, due to snow and other dangerous driving conditions.
Parts of Canada have also been hit by particularly cold winter weather, with extreme cold warnings issued in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. With wind chill, temperatures will drop as low as -50C (-58F) in some areas.
In the US south, the highest snowfall as of Tuesday afternoon local time was 10.5 inches in Rayne, Louisiana, the NWS reports.
Temperatures are expected to fall well below the January average, and could exceed record lows from the coast to the Tennessee Valley.
Governors of several states, including Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, have also declared states of emergency in response to the unusual cold.
The storm now approaching the US south began in Texas on Monday evening and is forecast to spread eastward along Interstate 10, the region’s main highway, by Wednesday morning.
By Tuesday afternoon, the storm moved across Georgia, the Florida Panhandle, and into North and South Carolina.
State leaders and agencies struggled to cope with the unusual weather.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Florida’s infrastructure is “designed differently” than states that see snow regularly.
“We’re not used to walking into a winter wonderland in Florida,” he said.
DeSantis, like North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, urged residents to stay at home.
The extreme weather, which is part of a severe cold snap that swept across the South and Eastern United States, is forecast to last for the next few days.
NWS meteorologist Mark Chenard told BBC affiliate CBS News that about 40 million people, mainly in the southern US, were at risk of some type of weather. Another 170 million people from the Rockies eastward were under extreme weather warnings or cold weather advisories.
Several school systems canceled classes and two Houston airports suspended flight operations.
The NWS warned that the rare storm could cause “widespread” disruption to both air and ground travel for days even after snowfall stops.
