Blizzard warning on the Gulf Coast as rare Southern U.S. snowstorm gets underway

Just about everything changed in the United States over the past day, except for the frigid weather entrenched across much of the country. In perhaps the strangest news of the week — a tall task, although it is only Tuesday — blizzard warnings have been hoisted from around Beaumont/Port Arthur in Texas to the Lafayette region of Louisiana. This is the “first ever blizzard warning” for the area, according to the Weather Service office in Lake Charles, La.

Weather Watch

Gulf Coast blizzard. At the same time 250 million Americans are under cold alerts across the eastern two-thirds of the nation, a winter storm is revving up along the Gulf Coast and eventually targets a big chunk of the Deep South to Southeast. Snow was falling in Houston and reached the doorstep of New Orleans during the early hours of Tuesday. Houston is expecting north of 4 inches, with around 6 inches forecast for the Big Easy. Shovelable snow is also likely through the western Florida panhandle, southern Georgia and into the coastal Carolinas.

Deep freeze. These days, most Arctic outbreaks don’t end up producing many records. Compared to a major heat wave in summer, the numbers are still fairly meager, but several dozen for chilly daily highs and lows will be broken, especially Wednesday near the East Coast and across the South, as this event reaches peak in those regions. A low of minus-42 Monday in Minnesota was preliminarily the coldest of the winter for the Lower 48 so far.

Éowyn eyes Europe. A powerful low-pressure area is forecast to sweep through northwest Europe starting Thursday and lasting into Saturday. Torrential rain, mountain snow and winds gusting 60 to 80 mph will reach Ireland late Thursday, cross Scotland Friday and reach Norway early Saturday. It’s the fifth named storm of the winter season from a coalition of neighboring countries, including the UK Met Office.

Lightning links

Tuesday is another extremely critical day for fire weather in Southern California, with critical expected Wednesday and deeper into the week.

Wondering how often it snows in the southern locales seeing snow Tuesday and Wednesday? Wonder no more.

After the globe reached 1.5 degrees above long-term temperature averages for the first time in 2024, on Monday the new/old U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement, again.

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