A rare blizzard blasts Gulf Coast, bringing first snow in years to parts of the South

Blizzards along the Gulf Coast are normally seen only at a Dairy Queen. But on Tuesday, for the first time ever, a National Weather Service office in southwest Louisiana issued a blizzard warning for a number of counties and parishes.

"Words that I never thought would come out of my mouth," meteorologist Donald Jones said in a briefing from the NWS office in Lake Charles, La.

The blizzard warning — meaning residents can expect to see frequent 35 mph wind gusts, with visibility likely limited to less than a quarter mile — covers two Texas counties and six Louisiana parishes. It comes as a long swath of the South faces extreme cold, sleet and snow this week.

As of midday Tuesday, 7 to 9 inches of snow were being reported in parts of southwestern Louisiana, according to the NWS.

In the Florida Panhandle, highways were also coated with snow.

Snow also fell Tuesday in New Orleans, where the NWS office reported more than 2 inches. The region will mainly see freezing lows through the week.

"Wind chills in the teens and even some single digits possibly" will hit an area that includes New Orleans, Baton Rouge and southwest Mississippi, according to an update from NWS meteorologist Kevin Gilmore.

Wednesday will be the coldest morning, with New Orleans forecast to be at 22 degrees, Gilmore said, urging people to limit their time outside. 

Emergency officials say people need to take step to protect water pipes, pets, their plants and each other from the freezing conditions. Local and state governments are opening warming centers and warning drivers to beware of treacherous roads that could be coated with slick ice.

"Roads could be very dangerous to travel on," said Eric Bullard of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, according to Mississippi Public Broadcasting. "So don't go out if you don't have to. Stay at home."

Winter storm is felt from Texas to North Carolina

The winter storm is bringing dangerous conditions to millions of people, from South Texas to northern North Carolina. As thermometers plunged Tuesday morning, health warnings and road closures spread, but people also seized a rare opportunity to see their neighborhoods coated in snow — and to go sledding.

"There's something really remarkable walking out your front door and stepping out into snow," Houston resident Patrick Van Pelt told Houston Public Media. He added, "It seems like every 10 or 12 years we'll get some snow but never where I would contemplate going sledding."

The storm is being powered by a unique blend of arctic air dropping down from the north, as a low-pressure system draws large amounts of moisture onshore from the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting winter storm's track is similar to a tropical storm, as it carves an icy path from the Gulf Coast to Georgia and the Carolinas.

In the Florida Panhandle, Pensacola saw its first measurable snow since 2014, according to member station WUWF.

As the system moves east, heavy snowfall was spreading Tuesday afternoon in southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia, with the NWS Tallahassee office predicting 4 to 6 inches of snow across a large area — an estimate that it raised at least twice on Tuesday.

On Monday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency through Jan. 28, member station WABE reported. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also declared a state of emergency, according to member station WFSU.

Forecasters have been warning for days about the storm's potential impacts — but even as it unfolded on Tuesday, experts warned that some predictions remain in flux.

For instance, the NWS office in Peachtree City, Ga., says snow and freezing rain are likely to stick due to the extremely low temperatures. But it adds that for a large part of Georgia, frozen precipitation will need to fall through a lower layer of dry air, making it difficult to predict accumulation amounts.