NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A rare winter storm charging through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast left New Orleans and Houston frozen Tuesday, closing highways, grounding nearly all flights and canceling school for millions of students more used to hurricane dismissals than snow days.
The storm has prompted the first ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border. Heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain are expected around the Deep South as a blast of Arctic air plunges much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.
Nearly 2,000 flights to, from or within the U.S. were canceled Tuesday, with about 10,000 others delayed, according to online tracker FlightAware.com. In Texas, both Houston airports suspended flight operations starting Tuesday in expectation of hazardous conditions.
Nearly every flight was cancelled at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport, though officials said the airport itself would remain open “as long as the conditions are safe.” Most airlines plan to resume normal operations Wednesday.
The East Coast was blanketed in snow while people from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine shivered in bitterly cold temperatures from the frigid arctic air mass that plunged temperatures well below normal. Dangerously cold wind chills were expected through Tuesday morning.
In New Orleans, 65-year-old Robert Hammock donned a beanie and rallied himself and his border collie Tillie for a snowy, frosty morning walk.
“She loves the snow,” Hammock said as Tillie sprawled happily in the slush on the sidewalk. “I’m from south Alabama, so I hate the snow.”
Winter storm warnings extended from Texas to North Carolina on Tuesday, with heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain expected to move eastward through the region into Wednesday. Meanwhile, a state of emergency was declared Monday night across at least a dozen counties in New York as heavy lake-effect snow was expected around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie through Wednesday — with 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) possible — along with extreme cold temperatures.
Snow on the Gulf Coast
Ahead of the storm, governors in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, declared states of emergency and many school systems canceled classes Tuesday.
The blizzard warning in effect until midday Tuesday was the first issued by the office in Lake Charles, Louisiana, according to meteorologist Donald Jones. Strong winds with heavier snow bands were reducing visibility, and areas across the Gulf South that rarely see snow are expecting near-record or record snowfall, Jones said.
Louisiana transportation agency workers worked through the night to prepare bridges and roadways.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, already had 1.5 inches of snow coating downtown Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service — the capital city’s first snowfall since 2018. Parts of Interstate 10 were closed due to icy conditions and some nearby parishes implemented curfews.
“The last time we saw snow of this magnitude was way back in 1960, and prior to that, the previous snowfall record that even stands to this day was way back in 1895,” Jones said. “By modern standards this is going to be a historic and very memorable storm for this part of the world.”
In Harahan, a suburb of New Orleans, as a rare snowstorm began to cover the roads, a Harahan police officer without gloves rubbed his hands to warm them, after responding to a church security alarm. Sleet changed to snow as the sun rose, with scarcely a car on the road.
