Snow in Southtown

If you've ever seen the Rankin-Bass holiday classic "A Year Without A Santa Claus" you know that there is a long negotiation between Mrs. Claus, Snow Miser, Heat Miser, and Mother Nature to bring snow for just one day to Southtown.  If you have seen it, then maybe like me you were thinking of it yesterday when it was snowing along the Gulf Coast.  And if you haven't seen it, you should check it out as it is a must for the meteorologically inclined.

In any event, the snow totals from the Gulf Coast are impressive, with many CoCoRAHS observers from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle coming in at more than 8.3 inches (red shade below).

Source: CoCoRAHS

The highest amounts reported by state were 13.3" in Grand Cotaeu (LA), 10.5" in Waveland (MS), 9" in Summerdale (AL), and 9.4" in Pennsacola (FL).  

I'm not versed in southeast meteorology, but it appears that this was truly a historic event.  For example, the Pensacola News Journal was reporting that official snowfall at the NWS site there had broken Florida's all-time snowfall record with 5" of snow (I'm not sure if this was the final total or not). 

Many weather records are based on daily (or 24-hour) totals and storms can sometimes cross over days.  Thus, I decided to pull up the largest 2-day total snowfalls for the Pensacola Area and indeed 3" is the prior record.  The one disadvantage of this approach is that a single one day storm can be listed twice (e.g., the 2.3 and 2.1 inch totals), but a quick subjective analysis suggests 9 unique events that produced an inch or more of snow in the Pensacola Area since 1880.   

Source: xmACIS2

Given the cold airmass combined with snow cover, minimum temperatures overnight set or were near all-time records.  Lafayette, LA dropped to 4F, an all-time record with observations back to 1893.  Mobile, AL hit 6F, their third lowest on record.  Incredibly, Mobile's all time record is -1 set on 13 Feb 1899.  

This event is a catastrophe for the unhoused and those in buildings that are poorly equipped for these extremes or lose power. The 2021 cold-air outbreak in Texas resulted in 246 deaths, a disaster was compounded by widespread power outages.  I am seeing reports of up some power outages this morning, which taken on huge significance in that region.  I am hoping that they remain localized and short lived.