Deep South Winterwx Discussion 2015-2016

[hurricanehunter69]

Damnit man...I got dry slotted! The precip stops as soon as I get home from work......sigh! Lookin at this water vapor loop gives me optimism for another round of heavy precip but the radar looks like it's drying up? http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/comp/ceus/flash-wv.html

[knoxtnhorn]

Today is an example of some of the absolute worst weather forecasting I think I've ever seen. I don't understand how some of these "professionals" keep their jobs. And, I don't just mean in predicting future snowfalls. I'm speaking of not knowing what's going in in REAL TIME.

Here's a timeline of how it went down in Knoxville today.

11PM Monday - Go to bed. No mention of snow.
2AM Tuesday - Winter Weather Advisory (phone app).
7AM Tuesday - A dusting, at most, predicted on all channels.
10AM Tuesday - All hell breaks loose. Schools dismissed. Roads quickly turn to ice. Cars in ditches, etc...
1PM Tuesday - "Worst is over. Snow will end by 4PM".
4PM Tuesday - Snow still coming down quite hard. At least 3 inches.
8:30PM Tuesday - Snow still coming down DESPITE local real time forecast stating snow will end by 6PM.

We've got at least 4-5 inches where I live. It is still snowing.

Quick question. I understand a Winter Weather Advisory to mean light accumulations/very little worries per the roads. Is there not a point, during a (now) almost 12 hour snowfall, with the roads almost completely impassable, that a Winter Storm Warning should be issued? Just curious.

[JabNOLA]

Thank you. You give us ALL hope!!!

[hurricanehunter69]

Looks like another heavy dose of precip developing just to our west! Hopefully snow this time! http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/comp/ceus/flash-wv.html

[NewOrleans59]

Looks like another heavy dose of precip developing just to our west! Hopefully snow this time! http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/comp/ceus/flash-wv.html

Been watching all day long creep this way, but all along it just seems to be avoiding the area around south of the lake. Maybe this is the time it gets us in on one last event. We shall see.

[windnrain]

Heavier band of snow heading into BR. It's not light blue anymore.

[NewOrleans59]

On 2nd thought, it looks like this one last push is drying up. The air is just too dry around here now. Missed opportunity for this very rare occurrence. Oh well....disappointing for sure.

[BigB0882]

Heavier band of snow heading into BR. It's not light blue anymore.

Quit doing this to me. It is too cold to keep running outside to see nothing. haha

[windnrain]

I'd say run outside in like 30 minutes. Theres TONS of moisture on the air in the WV loop, and the radar AND base reflectivity are showing falling snow. I think we'll see at least some flurries.

[hurricanehunter69]

Light precip starting to fall here again! The main energy of the Baja low has yet to pass through! I'm hoping the best part of the event has yet to come! Check out the moisture building to our west. Out and ahead of and in association with the Low. http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/comp/ceus/flash-wv.html

[SeGaBob]

Statesboro Airport reporting light snow but in my yard it's still freezing rain.... Power was also knocked out for about 10 minutes.

[SeGaBob]

About to give up on snow chances...dry slot moving in and the band of snow behind that seems to be narrowing. I don't see how we're supposed to get 2 inches.

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

Biloxi at 29 deg, frozen slush in my back yard about 1/2 inch... Sleet girl and I just chillin and having an adult beverage enjoying the winter ice event on the coast...



Frank P

[northjaxpro]

First sleet reports have come in across the Jax metro area at Cecil Field. Currently moderate rain here at my locale and 37.8 degrees. I have not observed sleet pellets yet here at my home, but I do know there is wintry mix of precip across SW Georgia and west all the way to Pensacola. Light snow currently reported at the Pensacola NAS and sleet reported at Tallahassee.

[northjaxpro]

Sleet is mixing in with the rain currently at my locale. Received 3/4 inch of rain so far overnight. Excellent evaporative cooling going on with the steady rain. Tempeartures have dropped 5degrees in the past 2 hours. Currently 37.1 degrees.

[Jag95]

Light snow in Crestview, FL.

[Pearl River]

Certain sections of Hwy 41 here in Pearl River, LA are iced over in large sections. It's 27 degrees here right now.

[timmeister]

Lots of Roads closed in the Pine Belt also. It's 24 degrees in West Hattiesburg and our driveway and streets in the sub division still have sleet and black ice on them. Haven't seen one vehicle leave the subdivision this morning. Another Snow Day!

[timmeister]

UPDATE: Driving conditions and road closures in the Pine Belt

Posted: Jan 29, 2014 7:01 AM CST
By Erin Lowrey, Community Manager

This is a news release from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.
Icy conditions remain extremely hazardous in the southern half of the state and motorists are asked to stay off the roads and highways until at least noon today.

Highway 49 in Magee is completely shut down, both northbound and southbound lanes.
In the Meridian area, driving conditions are very dangerous. The I-20/I-59 split is impassible. I-59 southbound is impassible. Westbound I-20 from the 20/59 split is impassible.

In the Hattiesburg area, icy conditions exists throughout the pine belt and many roads and highways are impassible.
Tractor-trailer traffic is asked to avoid traveling south on I-55, south of Jackson. The big rigs cannot negotiate hills and will be stranded.

Driving conditions are still treacherous in many areas south of I-20.
Up to midnight last night, the Mississippi Highway Patrol had 358 reports of crashes in the southern half of the state.


Overnight accidents confirmed, residents asked to stay off roads

Posted: Jan 29, 2014 8:38 AM CST
By Erin Lowrey, Community Manager

HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) -
Lt. Jon Traxler with the Hattiesburg Police Department confirmed 22 crashes throughout the city between the hours of 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Officials are still trying to clear the area on I-59 north of the Hwy 11 exit. This area has been shut down, and residents are urged to stay off the roads.
Crashes are based on reported accidents, not including vehicles abandoned in the ditches.
All Pine Belt residents are asked not to drive on the roads until at least noon, according to the Department of Public Safety.

Copyright 2014 WDAM. All rights reserved.

[cycloneye]

What a huge mess in parts of the deep south.

Winter Storm Targets Southeast


Nearly 8,000 students across Georgia and Alabama woke up today in school gyms or on buses. Streets and highways were littered with abandoned cars. Others emerged from churches, fire stations and grocery stores where they had spent the night after a rare snowstorm left thousands of unaccustomed southerners frozen in their tracks.

"Weather got so severe that we had to close the school," said Christine Hoffman, the principal of Inverness Elementary School in Birmingham, Ala., where 75 students spent the night. "We promised parents that staff would be at our school until every child was picked up."

Tuesday's storm deposited mere inches of snow - less than three inches in Atlanta - barely enough to qualify as a storm up North. And yet it was more than enough to paralyze Deep South cities such as Greenville, N.C., which officials say has only three snow plows, and New Orleans, which has none.


Among those who couldn't move was an expectant mom and her husband trying to get to the hospital. The woman ended up giving birth to a baby girl on Atlanta's Interstate 285.
"I could see the baby head like it was crowning so I went back to my car to get my first aid kit and some gloves and when I got back to the car the head had popped out," said Officer Tim Sheffield of the Sandy Springs Police Department, who helped deliver the baby with the father.

The below-freezing weather turned major roadways into sheets of ice, leaving thousands of drivers stranded and cars abandoned. One driver trying to get to the airport told ABC News he traveled one mile in eight hours.

"It was an incredible ordeal to drive in this kind of stuff and to make it home safe, that was a miracle to me," said another driver, Stan Coates.

The superintendent for Fulton County Schools in suburban Atlanta says his district had 90 buses stuck at midnight and a handful still stuck at 7:30 this morning.

"We have had students, unfortunately, stuck on buses all night," said Superintendent Dr. Robert Avossa. "The National Guard and other state and local officials have been helping us escort buses out of those situations."

Officials say all students have now been safely removed from stranded buses.

Many of the students stuck on buses were taken back to school, where they spent the night. Atlanta Public Schools confirmed to ABC News that several hundred students are "sheltered in place" at nine schools this morning.

More than 600 students remained in Marietta, Cobb County schools overnight.

Another 1,400 students slept in schools in Jefferson County, Ala., overnight, according to Bob Ammons with Alabama Emergency Management, while nearly 2,000 students camped out in Shelby County schools.

An additional 4,500 students remain at schools in Hoover, Ala.

"We started thinking about how we were going to feed them," David Miles, the principal of Louis Pizitz Middle School, in Vestavia Hills, Ala., where 20 students spent the night, told ABC News.

"Our lunch room manager happened to be one of the staff members stuck here and, singlehandedly, she put together a great hot meal for the kids," Miles said. "We took care of them and we rolled out the mats and have been showing them movies."

Adding to the congestion is the fact that many drivers simply gave up on the weather, leaving their cars on the road and walking to their destination.

"It is not moving at all, it's at a complete standstill," said Brandy Wallace, an Alabama resident who abandoned her car and walked back to her office after trying to get home. "People were blocking the intersection, getting out of their cars and walking."

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said early today that the National Guard was sending military Humvees onto Atlanta's snarled freeway system in an attempt to move stranded school buses and get food and water to people, and that Georgia State Patrol troopers would be heading to schools where children spent the night.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/freak-southern ... d=22279318