NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A major winter storm that slammed Texas and blanketed the northern Gulf Coast with record-breaking snow moved east Wednesday, spreading heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across parts of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and eastern Carolinas.
The weather warning areas included big cities like Jacksonville, Florida, which is expected to see snow, sleet and accumulating ice into Wednesday. The Jacksonville International Airport closed because of the weather Tuesday evening and said it planned to reopen at midday Wednesday. Schools canceled classes, and government offices were closed Wednesday.
“We are expecting some winter weather we’re not used to in Northeast Florida,” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook. ”The safest place you can be Tuesday night and Wednesday is at home!”
In eastern North Carolina, drifting snow was expected with near-blizzard conditions in the state’s Outer Banks, where up to 8 inches (20.3 centimeters) could fall.
Dangerous below-freezing temperatures with even colder wind chills were also expected to last over much of the week in the region. Authorities say three people have died in the cold weather.
The heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain hitting parts of the Deep South came as a blast of Arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.
Record-setting snow days
It had been more than a decade since snow last fell on New Orleans. Tuesday’s rare snowfall set a record in the city, where 10 inches (25 centimeters) fell in some places, far surpassing its record of 2.7 inches (6.8 centimeters) set Dec. 31, 1963, the National Weather Service said.
“Wow, what a snow day!,” the weather agency said in a social media post. “It’s safe to say this was a historic snowfall for much of the area.”
Snow closed highways, grounded nearly all flights and canceled school for more than a million students more accustomed to hurricane dismissals than snow days.
Snow fell in Houston and prompted the first ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border. Snow covered the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots, including Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida.
“Believe it or not, in the state of Florida we’re mobilizing snowplows,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
People made the most of it — from a snowball fight on a Gulf Shores beach to sledding in a laundry basket in Montgomery, Alabama, to pool-tubing down a Houston hill.
In New Orleans, urban skiing was attempted along Bourbon Street, a priest and nuns engaged in a snowball fight outside a suburban church, snowboarders shredded behind a golf cart, and people went sledding down the snow-covered Mississippi River levees on kayaks, cardboard boxes and inflatable alligators.
High school teacher David Delio and his two daughters glided down the levee on a yoga mat and a boogie board.
“This is a white-out in New Orleans, this is a snow-a-cane,” Delio said. “We’ve had tons of hurricane days but never a snow day.”
The nuns at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School near New Orleans encouraged their students last week to pray for the snow day they received Tuesday, the Rev. Tim Hedrick said. The priest said he invited the nuns to make snow angels, and they challenged him to a snowball fight that has since received tens of thousands of views on social media.
“It’s a fun way to show that priests and sisters are humans, too, and they can have fun,” Hedrick said.
Mobile, Alabama, hit 5.4 inches (13.7 centimeters) Tuesday, topping the city’s one-day snowfall record of 5 inches (12.7 centimeters), set Jan. 24, 1881, and nearing its all-time snowfall record of 6 inches (15.5 centimeters) in 1895, the weather service said.
Flight cancellations, states of emergency and fatalities
More than 2,300 flights to, from or within the U.S. were canceled Tuesday, according to online tracker FlightAware.com. Both Houston airports suspended flight operations, and nearly every flight was canceled at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport. Most airlines planned to resume operations Wednesday.
The NWS said up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of snow fell in the Houston area. Texas transportation officials said more than 20 snowplows were in use across nearly 12,000 lane miles in the Houston area, which lacks its own city or county plows.
Ahead of the storm, governors in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and even Florida — the Sunshine State — declared states of emergency and many school systems canceled classes Tuesday. School closures were planned in some coastal communities in North and South Carolina.
In the Texas capital, two people died in the cold weather, according to a statement from the city of Austin. No details were provided, but the city said emergency crews had responded to more than a dozen “cold exposure” calls.
Officials said one person has died from hypothermia in Georgia.
A state of emergency was also declared in at least a dozen New York counties with up to 2 feet (60 centimeters) of lake-effect snow and extreme cold expected around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie through Wednesday.
Santa Ana winds expected to return to Southern California
In Southern California, where blazes have killed at least 28 people and burned thousands of homes, dry conditions and strong Santa Ana winds remained a concern.
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Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Jack Brook in New Orleans; Sara Cline in Key Largo, Florida; Julie Walker in New York; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; Corey Williams in Detroit; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida; Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta; Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama; Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed.
