AccuWeather meteorologists are warning that large amounts of snow and ice could effectively shut down travel for days across parts of the Gulf Coast and Southeast.
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00:00John, it's good to see you. We have a mess and, you know, I want to get into the snow and the ice with you.
00:04Just big picture, we got a stripe of blue all the way down, pancake across the Gulf Coast here.
00:10So rare, and as you said, an unusual, highly disruptive and dangerous setup here in the
00:16coming days. Let's make no mistake about it, this is going to shut down, effectively shut down travel
00:22along large portions of the Gulf Coast here, probably for several days, a high impact storm.
00:29And John, as we watch this play out, we've got cold pushing south across the plains,
00:33and also moisture emerging from the Gulf.
00:35That's a bad combination because that press of arctic air is going to provide the bitter cold
00:41that's going to result in that snow and sleet and freezing rain in some places, and it will be
00:46rapidly expanding. So the rush hour gets off to a rough start here in the Houston metro area.
00:51First thing tomorrow, look at all this blue, that's the snow, pink is the icy mix, green is
00:57rain, and the yellow is some areas of heavier rain, and that will expand from Houston, Beaumont,
01:02Port Arthur, out east along I-10 to include Lake Charles and New Orleans tomorrow.
01:08When some of this snow is going to be falling at a rate, look at the dark blues in here,
01:12some of the snow is going to be falling at a rate of one to two inches per hour.
01:16Put that into perspective, that's tough for the road crews to keep up with in the northern
01:20part of the United States that deals with snow all the time. That's why we're so concerned about
01:25many road closures and major travel disruptions here in the south where there's less snow plows,
01:30less salters, less sanders, and things of that nature, and then all that snow moves up into parts
01:36of far southeast Georgia and up into coastal areas of north Carolina here as we make our way
01:43into Tuesday night. So a big mess on the way as well as north Florida. Some snow and sleet and
01:49freezing rain expected there too. And John, here we have our snowfall forecast. We've broken out
01:53the six to twelve inch forecast range there for an area along I-10 in Louisiana, just incredible.
01:59A very unusual area, so from the northeastern suburbs of Houston out toward Lake Charles, six
02:04to twelve inches, we've expanded the three to six inch snowfall area to include the New Orleans
02:09metro area. And remember there are a lot of elevated roadways, bridges, overpasses, things of
02:15this nature across the Gulf Coast, and those are going to be especially problematic from a slippery
02:20travel perspective. And Houston's one city where I often think of elevated road surfaces. There are
02:24lots of highways to get around town. There's no way to get around in Houston tomorrow. Absolutely
02:28just a nasty combination. The snow and ice, one-two punch here. Some are going to see a lot
02:32of sleet, but others will see freezing rain. Especially across far south Texas with that
02:37freezing rain concern, and then across southeast Georgia and northern Florida. The press of arctic
02:42air though is so impressive here with this system that it looks like a lot of places will be mainly
02:47snow. It's going to be an incredible storm there, and here we have our AccuWeather Wintercast ice
02:51for Mobile. A quarter inch of ice may not sound like a lot if you're not used to it. That's a huge
02:55problem. It sure is, especially in the south. This is a great time to download the AccuWeather app.
03:00Wintercast is available for any location around the country. You can see how much snow we're
03:05expecting in your backyard, plus the prospects snow and ice, plus the prospects for a little
03:09bit more and a little bit less. One other thing to remember about this, and this is very important
03:13here. We're concerned about major road closures, sometimes perhaps hundreds of miles of I-10,
03:20which will be sort of the epicenter of this snow and ice storm across the Gulf Coast. It may be
03:24closed for extended periods of time, and just because the snow and ice ends doesn't mean the
03:30impacts will. The cold is going to prolong the impacts, so watch for refreezes at night. Some
03:35of these roads are still going to be perhaps impassable in some areas for the next several
03:41days, so a major impact on the way. AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter. John, thanks as
03:46always. Thank you.