Snow is a rare thing here in the South, and when a few inches landed on my hometown of Atlanta a few weeks ago, I wrote a (hopefully) humorous article about how we just don't know how to handle it down here. Well, I don't think any of had a clue that less than two weeks later, we'd be breaking winter weather records all across the Southeast.
A first-ever Blizzard Warning has been issued for Lake Charles, LA as a historic winter storm sweeps through the Gulf Coast & Southeast today!❄️ @6abc pic.twitter.com/pXuxY1eDLE
— Payton Domschke (@PaytonDomschke) January 21, 2025
The Gulf Coast was probably the biggest surprise, especially Florida. Most people head down to the Sunshine State in January to get away from snow and freezing temperatures, but cities from Pensacola to Jacksonville got hammered with the white stuff. The Pensacola area seems to have been hit the hardest. According to AccuWeather, the panhandle city recorded an official 7.6 inches, while the Pensacola News Journal reports that some other local areas potentially saw up to nine or more. The record for the city, which is from 1895, was a whopping three inches.
Pensacola, Florida, became an unlikely winter wonderland and shattered a 100+ year old record for snow on Tuesday as 7.6 inches of snow fell. The previous record was 3 inches in 1895.
— AccuWeather (@accuweather) January 22, 2025
🎥: @AaronRigsbyOSC pic.twitter.com/BxkIAvGThI
Panama City also got between six and eight inches of snow, while the Jacksonville area saw up to two inches.
UNREAL!!!!! Once in a lifetime snowstorm in PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA! As a Floridian, this is probably the craziest and coolest liveshot I've ever seen on @weatherchannel @TWCChrisWarren pic.twitter.com/5uQBLJLg4o
— Chris Bruin (@TWCChrisBruin) January 21, 2025
Related: Winter Storm Sweeps the South (And We Don't Know How to Handle It)
Savannah, Ga., already looks like something out of a Hallmark movie, but add three inches of snow, and it's a picture-perfect winter wonderland.
Savannah looks like a winter wonderland this morning! ❄️
— Andrew Gorton WTOC (@AndrewGortonWx) January 22, 2025
Thanks to Rosy Mills for this photo of Broughton Street pic.twitter.com/HI1CRrqP0D
Oddly, the Atlanta area didn't get quite as much snow as Georgia's more southern cities did — places like Cordele saw nine inches! — but the inch or so that fell in the metro area still had an impact. Here's a look I-75 in Monroe County on Wednesday morning, which is about an hour south of Atlanta.
I-75 STANDSTILL: This is I-75 in Monroe County, which has been shut down for hours. You can see dozens of tractor-trailers and cars backed up for miles. https://t.co/Z6BG5NBslx pic.twitter.com/FFLTnmX9T4
— WSB-TV (@wsbtv) January 22, 2025
A little further west, other cities near the Gulf Coast, like Houston and New Orleans, also saw unprecedented amounts of snow. New Orleans hadn't seen snow in over a decade, according to the Associated Press, but it ended up with a record-breaking 10 inches. The original record was just 2.7 inches, and it happened on New Year's Eve in 1963.
Night after the snowstorm, New Orleans
— Marco (@marcorasi1960) January 22, 2025
(More snow photos on IG at marcorasi1960) pic.twitter.com/NknFX2dVyo
People were having snowball fights and skating down Bourbon Street.
New Orleans experiences its first snowfall in 15 years, and people are now having snowball fights in the streets ❄️🎉 pic.twitter.com/J6kFwwEfrv
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) January 21, 2025
Several counties along the Louisiana-Texas border even received blizzard warnings. City officials in Houston are asking people to stay off the icy streets on Wednesday, after the city received up to five and half inches of snow in some places. And rightfully so. Between 5 p.m. on Tuesday and 5 a.m. on Wednesday, the city reported 88 car accidents.
The fourth largest city in America Houston- 27° and continues to be shut down. City officials asking Houstonians to stay put and this why.@Mattlanza @houmayor @TxStormChasers @spann @JimCantore #houwx #htx #TXWX #hounews #abc13
— Storm Chaser Houston (@StormChaserHTX) January 22, 2025
Video in Downtown Houston pic.twitter.com/vpumLoin3K
On Tuesday, 80% of the country in 43 states were under some type of cold weather advisory, including 45 million Americans in the Deep South. Add that to the 12 million people in California who are under red flag warnings, and well, January is shaping up to be a pretty rough month for most of the country.
And while I didn't get any snow here at my house — despite having friends 20 miles away who did — I can't tell you how ready I am for spring, which starts in 57 days. What's the weather like where you are? Let us know in the comments!
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