A major and probably historic winter storm is expected to impact much of the Deep South states of eastern, central and southeastern Texas, all of Louisiana, central and southern Mississippi, central and southern Alabama, much of Georgia, the Florida Panhandle, north and northeast Florida and much of the Carolinas.
An area of low pressure is expected to take shape off of the lower Texas coast on Monday night. Gulf of Mexico moisture will push into an Arctic air mass leading to a icy mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain to occur across much of east, central and southeast Texas during late Monday night.
This low pressure system will then cross from west to east across the Gulf of Mexico during the day on Tuesday. Strong amounts of energy and quite a bit of moisture will push into the central Gulf Coast where that Arctic air mass will be located. Because of this, moderate to locally heavy snow is expected in an area from the northern suburbs of Houston eastward through southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi during the day on Tuesday. This snow will move into southern Alabama, the western Florida Panhandle and central Georgia by Tuesday evening.
A swath of freezing rain with significant amounts of ice is expected to move over northern Florida and southern Georgia during Tuesday night.
Snow is also expected along the Georgia and Carolina coastlines on Tuesday night, which will last until Wednesday morning.
This is likely to be an exceptionally rare snowfall for many across the Deep South. The most snow ever recorded in New Orleans in modern history was 2.7″ back in 1963. Mobile hasn’t seen more than about 3 inches of snow in living memory. This snowfall event is likely to rival those historic snowfalls & will probably be a generational winter storm for much of the Deep South.
Snow amounts of 3 to 6 inches are expected across an area from the eastern Houston suburbs through the Beaumont area through much of southern Louisiana, including Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans through southern Mississippi, including Hattiesburg and Gulfport.
Snow amounts of 1 to 3 inches are expected for many across the Deep South outside of the 3 to 6 inch snowfall area. Areas that are likely to receive 1 to 3 inches of snow accumulation include all of the Houston Metro, San Antonio, Austin, Jackson, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Pensacola, Tallahassee, Atlanta, Savannah, Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Wilmington.
Forecast Snow Amounts:
Ice is also expected to be a huge problem for parts of north Florida and southeastern Georgia where one tenth to one quarter of an inch of ice from freezing rain is expected on Tuesday night. This is more than enough ice to lead to tree damage and widespread power outages.
Forecast Ice Accumulations:
I cannot emphasize enough how big of a deal this is going to be for those of you in the Deep South. This is going to be an extremely high-impact and extremely disruptive storm for the region.
DO NOT travel for at least several days (from early Tuesday morning until at least early Friday) due to the expectation of extremely hazardous road conditions for an extended period of time due to snow, ice and temperatures then remaining below freezing. Airport delays and cancellations are likely on Tuesday, Wednesday and maybe even Thursday.