‘Once in a lifetime’ snow hits parts of the U.S. South
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A winter storm sweeping through the U.S. South on Tuesday was dumping snow at levels millions of residents haven't seen before. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico was combining with a low-pressure system and chilly air to drop significant amounts of snow in some spots. That included 10.5 inches near Lafayette, Louisiana by midday Tuesday — within striking distance of the state record of 13 inches set in 1960.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, had 6 inches. More than 5 inches had fallen in New Orleans, breaking the record of 2.7 set in 1963. In Texas, the Houston-Galveston area had 2.4 inches before midday. The National Weather Service's Lake Charles, Louisiana, office issued its first-ever blizzard warning Tuesday. The NWS' Mobile office reposted video on X of two people having a snowball fight in Orange Beach, Alabama, just steps from the Gulf of Mexico.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for a lot of these folks down there. For kids that have never had snowball fights … they’re going to have one,” said Tom Kines, a meteorologist at AccuWeather. The U.S. Gulf Coast is the most hurricane-prone region in the country and snow is a “fairly rare phenomenon,” said Bradley Brokamp, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Houston. “You don’t usually get them in the same areas that often,” Brokamp said. The combination is more typical in the Northeast that sees snowy winters and the occasional tropical storm.
In Houston, where 2 to 4 inches of snow was forecast, the Yale Street Grill was virtually the only business open in one inner-city neighborhood. A couple of the restaurant's workers had time to venture outside and build a 3-foot tall snowman complete with carrot nose and scarf.
