The light blue/cyan and white areas are what is known in the weather business as “snow”, even though the city is New Orleans. The fluffy white stuff was in Houston last night. It’s not unknown along the Gulf Coast, but it is not a common winter occurrence.
They will be fishing the unfamiliar out of the bayous if the temperature stays down low enough for any of it to stick to the roads.
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…I imagine not many Gulf Coast tire dealers sell studded tires, so sticking snow would probably make for an interesting drive…
Ironically, cable news is just now reporting closed roads and a Winter Weather Advisory for New Orleans…
Actually, it the bridges and causeways that create all the problems because they freeze before everything else and become sheets of ice.
The local bridge over the bayou is so steep, that when it freezes you need chains or a tracked vehicle to get over it. If there’s not a lot going on and it happens, you wander down and watch the SUVs with all wheels spinning get about halfway up and then started slipping back down.
You take poles, ropes, and life rings with you, because, sooner or later, some fool ends up in the bayou and you have to fish them out. My best friend warms up the engine on his 30-footer because bad things happen if you let the engine freeze and he has a platform on the back that makes it easier to get people out of the water without getting wet. He lives just down from the bridge.
Reminds me of Christmas 1998. I was driving a Ford Aspire (a Kia-built rattletrap where “it aspires to be a real car”, but it got 40mpg dammit!) from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Alexandria, Louisiana to spend time with my mother. It started raining about halfway through Alabama. When I hit the Mississippi state line, first bridge past that, I felt the rear end slide out slightly as I came off the bridge. I corrected properly and got things straightened out, then slowed down to 45mph, and, for every bridge I saw, put my emergency flashers on and went over it at 20mph or so. And braved the horns of the asswipes coming up behind me at 65mph and hoped they wouldn’t turn my little Kia into a smear on the pavement.
Thing is, once I got to the other side of the bridge, usually I saw said asswipe in the ditch on the other side. Did I stop and use my cell phone to call 911? Fuck no. Fuck’em. If he thought I was going over that goddamned bridge at 20mph because I wanted to, he deserved everything he got. Around Jackson, *every* offramp and *every* overpass had smashed cars all over the freakin’ place because the fuggin’ morons just drove balls out and slid right off the damned roadway in the ice and snow.
So anyhow, I hit the Louisiana state border, and as you can imagine, it’s been damned slow and I’m way tired. So I got off at Vicksburg and looked for a hotel room. Not a damned thing anywhere. Lady at the motel said every motel room in town was filled by utility company trucks come to fix the power lines after the ice storm let up. So I got a cup of coffee and headed out again. Monroe? Same deal. So I head down 165, tired as all getout, but at least the weather has warmed up a bit and there’s no longer ice on the bridges, not that I’m roaring over them at top speed. I ended up getting to my Mom’s house at 2AM and fell asleep on the couch shortly after staggering in…
Anyhow, that’s what happens in the South when you see snow and ice come through. It ain’t fun at all.
The I-12 down by New Orleans keeps the ‘gators fed anytime there’s bad weather.
Pick-ups with no weight in the back sliding all over everywhere; fools who think 4WD magically provides traction on glare ice, people going through intersections sideways; oh, yes, the joys of Southern driving when the roads get bad.
I made it to work every day through the snows and blizzards of Rochester, the lovely Arctic weather in Fairbanks, but if we get a heavy thunderstorm down here there’s no room for all of the ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars heading from accident to accident.
One point that was highly unusual: I am originally from Hattiesburg, MS — about 100 miles north of New Orleans and midway along US 49 between Jackson and Gulfport. The snow incident last week was actually the SECOND such event this year, as they had a light snow back in January. While the Pine Belt may get a very light flurrie once every couple of years (that doesn’t stick), a measurable snow that sticks is highly unusual once every 3-4 years…twice in one year is almost unheard of! My sister said they received 3-4 inches.
The Hattiesburg American did a live blog noting that school administrators in one rural district didn’t make the decision on closure until the buses were already on the road. Apparantly the buses did not have two way radio communication, so many did not find out until they arrived filled with kids to the schools.
I saw picture of blowing snow in Bay St Louis, which was just weird.
I worry about the bridges, because they seem to freeze almost immediately. I remember actual ground covering snow only once since I lived here and ice on the bayou only twice. It will get cold, below freezing, but usually only in clear weather. Clouds tend to make it warmer.
Things are shifting around, which may mean more snow for us, and less for places where they expect it.