ATLANTA — Much of Texas and Oklahoma got heavy snow and icy roads from a strong winter storm that moved east into Southern U.S. states on Friday. This made travel dangerous and gave many kids a rare snow day.
As governors in several states announced states of emergency, Arkansas and North Carolina called up their National Guards to do things like help drivers who got stuck. Millions of kids from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina didn’t have to go to school.
In some Southern towns, the storm dumped more snow than they get in a year. In some places of Arkansas, it rained up to a foot (10 cm). Nearly 10 inches (about 25 centimeters) of rain fell in Little Rock. The city usually gets 3.8 inches (9.7 centimeters) of rain a year.
Since late Thursday night, it has snowed more than 7 inches (18 cm) at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee. It rains about 2.7 inches (6.9 centimeters) a year in the city. Where there wasn’t as much snow, like in Memphis, people were afraid that the roads would freeze over at night.
A winter mix of sleet, snow, and ice made driving dangerous further south and east into Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. The sleet and snow that fell over parts of Atlanta into South Carolina and North Carolina was turning into freezing rain. Forecasters said that power lines and trees could fall if the ice builds up too much.
Over 100,000 people in Georgia, mostly in and around metro Atlanta, lost power in the evening, a big jump from the morning. A lot of people in northeast Texas and southwest Arkansas lost power Friday night.
The heavy, wet stuff also made a good snowball for kids coming home from school.
On her day off, 12-year-old Mikayla Johnson was outside in Atlanta making snow angels and snowmen.
Mikayla, who was outside with her dad Nate, said, “My first thought was, ‘Wow!'” “Good snow, at least, hasn’t fallen here since I was about four years old.” That made me very happy.
In some places in central Oklahoma and northern Texas, the storm dropped as much as 7 inches (18 cm).
And in the Kansas City area, some school districts let kids back in on Thursday after three days of snow days. But on Friday, more snow closed schools again.
According to flight tracking software FlightAware, snow started falling in metro Atlanta before dawn. This caused hundreds of flights to be canceled and hundreds more to be delayed at the world’s busiest airport. Before 8 a.m., controllers called a ground stop, which meant that no planes could land or take off.
Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport says that four people were hurt when a Delta plane headed for Minneapolis failed to take off on Friday morning. Three people were treated at the spot for minor injuries, and one passenger was taken to the hospital.
The event caused more delays, but Delta said it wasn’t clear if the weather had anything to do with the flight’s aborted takeoff. The company said there were signs of a problem with the engine.
Charlotte, North Carolina, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Nashville were some of the airports that had a lot of delays and cancellations. There were three American Airlines planes that got rerouted and 55 people had to spend the night at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas told people not to drive if they could help it. About 75,000 people were planning to go to AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Friday to watch the Cotton Bowl, which was the semifinal game for the college football title. It was between Texas and Ohio State.
The polar vortex of very cold air usually goes around the North Pole, but it has been known to go south into the United States, Europe, and Asia. In a strange way, some experts say that these kinds of events are happening more often because the world is warming up.
At the same time as the cold snap, Los Angeles was hit by rare January wildfires.
Feeling bad in the South
The National Weather Service said that through Saturday, it could snow up to 8 inches (20 cm) in some places in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Over a million public school kids in metro Atlanta and north Georgia had the day off because of the snow, or they learned online at home.
In 2014, a terrible winter storm left thousands of workers and students in the Atlanta area stranded away from home for the night. On Friday, Georgia officials quickly canceled all classes and shut down all offices.
In the Atlanta area, several highway interchanges were closed or slowed down because trucks would not move. James Stallings, director of Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said that this time around, emergency workers were towing cars that had broken down. They learned their lesson from previous storms when that was a huge problem.
After a semitrailer hit a Tennessee Department of Transportation truck in Smith County, drivers were told to give plows room.
Nashville’s Joe Feliciano walked on snowy streets to deliver mail on Friday. He was born in Florida and moved to Tennessee in 2023. He said he’s not used to driving in the snow, but the U.S. Postal Service taught him how to do it, so now he’s “nervous but confident” and knows to be careful and go slowly.
“This makes me go, ‘Wow!'” “Wow, this is a lot of snow,” she said.
Some parts of South Carolina were getting their first snow in three years. From Columbia northward, the state Department of Transportation plowed interstates and other major roads, but south of the city, cars were sliding off of Interstate 95 because it was so icy. Some schools were closed.
Because it was going to snow, sleet, and freeze rain in North Carolina on Saturday, the public outdoor inauguration ceremony for Gov. Josh Stein and other elected leaders in Raleigh had to be canceled. The storm’s path crossed with a lot of the area that Hurricane Helene hit last year in western North Carolina.
The storm was supposed to hit Richmond, Virginia, on Friday night. Mayor Danny Avula said that extra resources, such as a new backup battery and more water filters, were brought in to keep an eye on the city’s water treatment plant, which was down for several days earlier this week because of a snowstorm.
Leave a Comment