Travel chaos after early snow blankets southern US states
Snow covered a large part of the southern United States on Friday, triggering a flurry of winter weather warnings that closed businesses and schools, cancelled hundreds of flights and caused traffic jams. It also unleashed a flurry of snowman construction and sledging in places more accustomed to sunshine than snow.
A storm dropped a rare coating of snow as far south as Brownsville, Texas, near the border with Mexico up through southern Louisiana and parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the southern Appalachians.
“This is an unusual event – to see snow falling this early in the season all the way from Texas and the Gulf coast region to Georgia,” said Laura Pagano, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Atlanta/Peachtree City office. “It has happened before, but not often.”
More than 200,000 customers across the region lost power as snow broke branches off trees and power lines.
“SNOW MEETS SAND!” Wesley Williams, a meteorologist for local television station WLOX, posted on Twitter as a light dusting of snow fell on the shoreline of Bay St Louis, a Mississippi coastal city. “The flakes are falling at Mississippi’s shore.”
Other parts of southern Mississippi recorded some of their heaviest-ever snowfalls in a single day. With 15.2cm, Columbia, a small city about 128km southeast of Jackson, broke its record of 12.9cm in December 2008.
Jackson received up to 15cm of snow, the most seen in the region since 1982, according to the National Weather Service. Dozens of schools closed or had delayed openings, and some businesses also shut.
“It might snow once or twice a year here, but we’re not really prepared for this kind of weather, so it really brings the city to a standstill,” said Larry Farish, a 61-year-old resident who works as a hotel receptionist.
Matt Lanza, a Houston meteorologist who blogs for Space City Weather, estimated that most of the Houston area got a 5cm coating of snow. That is more than usual, but well short of its record of 50.8cm on Valentine’s Day 1895. College Station, a Texas city about 145km northeast of Houston, got 12.7cm, which Lanza said in a blog post was “their second biggest snow on record”.
After snow began to fall across Texas on Thursday night, safety officials in Austin urged motorists to be extra cautious, especially on icy and slick patches on overpasses and motorways. Throughout the morning, police closed roads across the city and responded to wrecks.
In Georgia, more than 20 school systems closed ahead of the snow as the National Weather Service in Atlanta and Peachtree City predicted a possible snowfall of up to 10cm and issued a winter storm warning for the north and central parts of the state.
Even a light dusting of snow can create panic in Atlanta. In January 2014, just 5cm of snow led to a traffic jam across the sprawling metropolis, preventing salt trucks and ploughs from moving around the city. Thousands of students and commuters were stranded, and motorists were stuck on icy motorways for as long as 16 hours.
As a thin layer of snow began to coat Atlanta rooftops late Friday morning, businesses and schools raced to close early. Roads across the city clogged well before rush hour.
On Interstate 285, the motorway that loops around Atlanta, a sign warned motorists that it could take 71 minutes to travel 9.6km.
By Friday afternoon, more than 550 flights were delayed at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest airport in the world. A host of institutions, including Emory University and Zoo Atlanta, closed. Even Snow Mountain, a 120-metre tubing hill that bills itself as a “winter wonderland full of real snow”, shut down.
As snowflakes the size of coins dropped across Atlanta on Friday afternoon, meteorologists predicted the region could see another 10cm of snow. With temperatures expected to sink below freezing after dusk, they warned that black ice could make roads hazardous and urged residents to limit travel to emergency situations.
The cold weather is forecast to move north over the weekend, with the National Weather Service issuing winter weather advisories for parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Up to 10cm of snow are expected in New York City, prompting the Department of Emergency Management to issue a travel advisory urging commuters to be extra careful when driving, walking or biking.
“Winter has come early, and we don’t want anyone to be caught off guard,” New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Esposito said in a statement.
