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A once-in-a-lifetime winter storm continues to hit hard in the South, shutting down travel and leaving millions with the most snow recorded in at least a century in cities like New Orleans, Mobile and Pensacola.
Winter Storm Enzo has moved on from those areas and is now winding down along the Southeast coast, but the impacts are far from over. The latest news is below – check back for frequent updates as the day goes on. And to read Tuesday’s live updates as the storm clobbered the Gulf Coast, click here.
Here are some top snow totals reported from southeast Georgia and South Carolina:
- Charleston – 4 inches
- Knightsville, South Carolina – 4.5 inches
- Moncks Corner, South Carolina – 4.0 inches
- Savannah, Georgia – 3 inches
Per a social media post from Louisiana State Police:
“LSP reminds the community that most of the Interstate system, federal, and state highways remain CLOSED statewide … While small sections may appear drivable, the majority of roadways are iced and unsafe, necessitating closures.
Troopers have seen a rise in unnecessary travel, leading to crashes and stalled vehicles that demand additional response efforts. Please stay home—your cooperation helps ensure safety and allows Troopers to focus on reopening roads as conditions improve.”
From weather.com staff writer Renee Straker:
The Zavala County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Wednesday that five people died in an overnight crash Tuesday. The accident happened on the Nueces River Bridge in southwest Texas. In a Facebook post the Sheriff’s Office shared pictures from the scene of that crash and another wreck between a semitrailer and a minivan on Wednesday morning.
From weather.com staff writer Jenn Jordan:
Add this to the list of surprising impacts from Winter Storm Enzo – The roof of the Mobile Civic Center has collapsed under the weight of the city’s historic snowfall. City officials confirmed the collapse was consistent with ongoing demolition plans, as the building was already being torn down to make way for a new arena. Thankfully, no injuries or extraneous damage were reported following the collapse.
Mobile received more than 7 inches of snowfall from the storm, a record for the city.
From weather.com staff writer Renee Straker:
Two big basketball games are being postponed due to the snow and ice in the South. The NBA postponed Wednesday night’s game in New Orleans between the Pelicans and the Milwaukee Bucks. No word on when that game will be rescheduled but the Bucks have a game in Miami Thursday, and they’re stuck in New Orleans where flights at Louis Armstrong International Airport were canceled Wednesday.
Thursday night’s women’s game between LSU and South Carolina has been pushed to Friday in Columbia, South Carolina. Roads around the LSU campus in Baton Rouge remained shut down on Wednesday and LSU canceled classes through Thursday.
While Florida’s largest cities, including Tampa and St. Petersburg, escaped ice and snow, they still felt the cold. Weather in the Tampa area right now includes temperatures in the low 40s and windchills into the 30s.
Areas along the state’s East Coast could see winds gusting up to 40 mph.
See that white stuff covering land along the Gulf Coast? It isn’t clouds.
From weather.com senior meteorologist Chris Dolce:
Ireland and the United Kingdom are set to be hit by damaging winds from a system named Storm Éowyn Thursday night into Friday, and it has something to do with the historic winter storm that just hit the South.
The energy that helped create the snowy mess in the South triggered low pressure development near the Southeast coast. From there it will intensify rapidly as it crosses the north Atlantic before slamming into Ireland and the United Kingdom.
We see this on occasion with other storms, including in hurricane season when sometimes the remnants of tropical cyclones transition into non-tropical cyclones and hit northwest Europe.
Here’s a look at some of the highest numbers of delays and cancellations by airport so far today, according to FlightAware.com:
- Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson – 1,036
- Houston Bush Intercontinental – 511
- Charlotte-Douglas – 325
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans – 243, with all departing flights canceled.
- Dallas-Fort Worth – 182
A social media post from the National Weather Service pointed out that today, onJan. 22, Florida and Louisiana have more snowpack than South Dakota.
The post notes: “Here’s something you don’t see, well, EVER!”
Nearly half of Florida’s 67 school districts canceled classes today, most of them across the Panhandle and northern part of the state.
Eight have already announced closures for tomorrow, and at least three districts – Escambia, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties – will stay closed through Friday.
From weather.com staff writer Renee Straker:
Mobile, Alabama, broke its all-time records for one- and two-day snowfall Tuesday. The city was blanketed by 7.5 inches of snow, and it added a sense of majesty to the city’s USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. The snow gently covered the ship and surrounding aircraft on display.
Outages stretch from Texas into Georgia. Here’s a look at the current top numbers, according to PowerOutage.us:
- Georgia – 43,893 outages
- Florida – 33,426 outages
- Texas – 18,828 outages
- Louisiana – 10,990
Officials continue to monitor road conditions across parts of the South impacted by the storm. Ongoing closures on Interstate 10 include a section in Florida from mile marker 5 in Escambia County to mile marker 70 in Okaloosa County.
I-10 remains closed in both directions in Louisiana from the Texas state line to around Baton Rouge, according to the state’s road conditions map. Portions of Interstate 55 are also shut down.
From weather.com senior meteorologist Chris Dolce:
We will see some temperatures rising above freezing along parts of the Gulf Coast today, but not enough to significantly warm things up. The meltdown might be slow today and we still have lingering cold warnings and cold advisories.
But as we get into Thursday and Friday with temperatures into the 40s that melting should accelerate, and temperatures are going to ease especially as we go into next week.
Officials in DeKalb County, Georgia declared an emergency at around 10 a.m. due to severe winter weather and are asking everyone to shelter in place.
Dekalb is on the east side of Atlanta and includes the cities of Decatur, Dunwoody, Chamblee, North Druid Hills and Stone Mountain.
New all-time record lows were broken or came close across parts of southern Louisiana, according to the National Weather Service.
That includes:
- 6 degrees in Lake Charles, nearing the all-time record of 3 degrees set in 1899.
- 2 degrees in New Iberia, a new all-time low in records going back to 1948.
- 4 degrees in Lafayette, the lowest ever in records going back to 1893.
Though it wasn’t all snow – it was mostly sleet, actually – Tallahassee recorded up to 1.9 inches of wintry precipitation from Winter Storm Enzo. And that was enough to transform the campus of Florida State University into a winter wonderland, as you can see in this drone video from Mike’s Weather Page.
In yet another bizarre visual of a Southern beach town draped in wintry precipitation, Myrtle Beach meteorologist Ed Piotrowski shared aerial images of a snow-covered coastline as the sun rose this morning.
As we rapidly approach the much-anticipated crawfish season in the South, experts say not to worry – neither Enzo nor the subsequent cold blast will wipe out the “mudbugs.”
Nola.com interviewed Todd Fontenot, the crawfish extension agent with the LSU AgCenter, who said the cold-blooded creatures won’t grow much during the cold weather, but they’re able to conserve energy and survive frigid temperatures by moving very little.
“You know, it’s a short-term delay in the old activities, but with some good warming weather come out of this, we find it’s gonna get back to where it was pretty quickly again,” Fontenot told Nola.com.
From weather.com meteorologist Danielle Banks:
Everyone is talking about the snow, but it was also pretty wild to see single-digit temperatures Wednesday morning in Louisiana. The extra ‘Brrrr!’ had to do with a process known as the snowpack refrigeration effect.
Snow has a high albedo, or reflectivity. During the day, snow on the ground reflects sunlight, which keeps the surface cooler than it would be without snow. At night, the heat absorbed by the snow during the day radiates back into the atmosphere, dropping overnight temperatures more than if there were no snow on the ground.
The snow is still being measured and totals remain unofficial in some areas, but here’s where we know this storm broke records.
- New Orleans (8 inches): Biggest snowstorm in modern history (since 1948), and the snowiest day for the city in over 100 years. Old record: 2.7 inches.
- State of Florida (8.8 inches in Milton): This total is preliminary but it more than doubles the state’s previous record for the biggest 24-hour snow total, which was 4 inches in Milton on March 6, 1954.
- Pensacola, Florida (7.6 inches): New all-time record
- Mobile, Alabama (7.5 inches): New all-time 1- and 2-day snow records
Following a rough afternoon commute where about an inch of snow rapidly froze on roads and left many drivers unable to get home, several metro Atlanta school districts will either be closed today or won’t open on time.
Atlanta Public Schools canceled classes for today, as did Clayton County Schools. In Fulton County, where Atlanta is located, students in the county’s school district will have remote learning today, as will Gwinnett County, the state’s largest district.
North of the city, Cobb County Schools announced a delayed start this morning.
Behind the winter storm, a round of dangerously cold air moved southward, dropping temperatures into the single digits (or colder) for millions early this morning. In Austin, Texas, two people died from the cold weather, the city announced, providing no further details. The city responded to several other “cold exposure” calls during and after the storm, according to the Associated Press.
During the winter storm, there were “several” deaths in Zavala County, Texas, due to an icy crash near the Highway 57 bridge.
