Historic snow has snarled traffic in cities like New Orleans and Houston, but this winter storm isn't done yet as it heads toward the Carolinas.
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00:00Let's take you into the details here. We're gonna break this down joined now by Accuweather chief meteorologist John Porter and John
00:06this has been an amazing storm with the
00:10Intensity of the snow in areas way to the south a truly historic snow here Jeff
00:14And this is why Accuweather experts ahead of all other sources were stressing that this was going to be a major snow and ice storm
00:21That would disrupt travel for days look at this the blue on the radar is all areas where there's snow occurring
00:29Pink is a little bit of an icy mix and the green is areas of rain
00:33But notice this all the way down to far southern, Louisiana to the Gulf Coast line
00:38Blue that's snow occurring all the way down to parts of Plaquemines Parish all the way in southeastern
00:44Louisiana near the Mississippi Delta there so a very impressive
00:49Snow event and this is snarling traffic and resulting in all kinds of challenges
00:54I just got the latest update from New Orleans Airport where they're now reporting and a visibility of a 16th mile
01:02in heavy snow
01:03I've been at Accuweather 20 years
01:05And I can tell you that that type of report is extremely unusual a truly historic event with so many impacts
01:12Absolutely, and John. I'm just framing up a more detailed view of the New Orleans radar here
01:17And this is just incredible to see this kind of type of snow
01:21You know we're in the mid 20s and upper 20s some of these areas. It's not even close to to rain
01:26We're dealing with the cold that has plowed all the way south even off the southern fringe of this radar view
01:32Dozens of miles offshore, but as we move forward here
01:35We have concerns that spread east into South Georgia and the low country, South Carolina live oak, Florida
01:40They're along I-10 big-time snow for them, too. Yes, so let's see what's happened here so far today
01:45We've had this heavy snow across the I-10 area from earlier Houston and Lake Charles over toward New Orleans
01:51This is going to be spreading east along 10
01:54So we're going to be dealing with rapidly deteriorating travel conditions across the southern part of Alabama and across the Florida
02:02Panhandle so even out toward places like Destin, Florida look out as we're going to be dealing with a
02:07Significant risk for snow accumulation there now as the storm moves to the east there the air is not the cold air is not as deep
02:15across parts of
02:17Northeastern Florida up into the Carolinas especially near the coast so we still think there can be more of an icy mix you can see
02:23That on our future cast getting into those pink colors there from Jacksonville up the Georgia coast near Savannah and up into the
02:32Carolina South Carolina coastline so more of an icy mix there
02:35But to the north some snow across portions of coastal, North Carolina
02:39So we've got more of the storm to come and more significant travel disruptions on the way
02:44And John just incredible to see our snowfall forecast six plus inches there
02:48Along the the I-10 stretch in an area where the climate is so resistant to snow
02:54They're climateologically southern Louisiana and as this moves forward John
02:58I know that we've been looking at some of these areas where Houston some of the issues that we've seen there
03:03I know travel has been a disaster in Houston any updates
03:07I know you're very dialed into the newsy aspect of this beyond even the the meteorology behind it all
03:12Anything you'd like to share about Houston there on the backside of the storm well
03:15I think the big message there in Houston and also over toward Lake Charles in New Orleans is once the snow stops and
03:21Start and ends here from from west to east the impacts are going to continue here for the next couple of days because it's going
03:28To be cold and the lack of snow fighting equipment as we talked about in those areas travel is going to remain
03:34dangerous and treacherous here as we head through tonight and into tomorrow and
03:39Even during the day in Houston in New Orleans as the temperature gets above freezing during the day
03:45Refreezes at night with the bitter cold continuing so that's going to prolong the travel disruptions and the problems in these areas
03:52expect school delays and
03:54cancellations in a lot of spots here to last for days and more troubles at the airports a
03:59Big travel mess here still to come even after the snow and ice ends and in places like New Orleans
04:04You're talking about limited resources
04:06Just incredible that we've only had eight measurable snow events in the past of what 70 years or so in New Orleans
04:11And a tenth of an inch would count
04:13But we're blasting way past that multiple times over
04:16With a three to six inch snowfall forecast and then as we move forward to the Outer Banks and areas like New Bern, North Carolina
04:23The timing of this looks pretty early early in the morning probably ending by daybreak
04:28Yeah, that's the that is that is the thought but again. We'll be watching
04:32For some of those heavier snow totals perhaps right along the coast of North Carolina and an icy mix just to the south and
04:39Regarding that ice tricky forecast there into Jacksonville any I think you'd like to add about that John
04:44I know that we're a little bit milder there in the atmosphere, but still icy concerns
04:48One of the things we've been noticing is that the cold air is not as deep through the low levels of the atmosphere there across
04:54North Florida and Southeast, Georgia that leads us to believe that places like Jacksonville, Savannah
04:59More sleet and freezing rain perhaps than snow and that has us concerned that there can be an increase in power outages
05:06There we have not seen huge power outage problems so far further west because as we were talking about
05:12For the last several days this has mostly been snow that bitter cold is just so deep and so prevalent here in the lower part
05:19Of the atmosphere that we're dealing with more snow than we are ice all right so from Alma, Georgia to Brunswick
05:25St.. Simon's Island areas a little farther west to Live Oak, Florida
05:28That's kind of the triangle where we're most concerned about some power outages escalating tonight. Thank you weather chief meteorologist John Porter
05:33Thanks as always John good to be with you. Thank you