Snowstorm socks Southern states, targets East Coast
A band of cold air that delivered a rare blanket of snowto parts of southern Texas rolled through the Deep South on Friday, bringing threats of more weekend snow, sleet and dicey travel conditions from the Mid- Atlantic to New England.
Parts of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi reported snow flurries before dawn. In Georgia, nearly two dozen school systems closed ahead of the wintry weather.
“It’s the first snow of the season, and any time you even mention snow in the South, you’re going to get people a little panicky,” said David Nadler, a meteorologist at the NationalWeather Service office south of Atlanta.
This first taste of winter will vary along the path across the South, with sleet and snow expected — but not certain — in much of Virginia, but likely producing snow in larger amounts farther north in New York City, Massachusetts and Maine.
The NationalWeather Service said a half- inch to an inch of snow was forecast across many areas of the South by Friday night. Winterweather advisories have been posted for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Meanwhile, a second storm moving across the upper tier of the United States out of the Midwest could bring patchy snowand the chance of a small accumulation to parts of the interior Northeast, AccuWeather said.
The amount and intensity of snow activity depends on if and when the northern storm merges with the southern band and how much moisture it carries as it gets closer to the Atlantic Ocean.
The storm’s unpredictable nature was ondisplay inTexas near the Gulf Coast, as a band of heavy snow slowly moved over Austin and San Antonio, eventually reaching Houston and Corpus Christi.