ATLANTA (AP) — A powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward into Southern U.S. states Friday, making for dicey travel and a rare snow day for many students.
Arkansas and North Carolina mobilized their National Guards for tasks such as helping stranded motorists, as governors in multiple states declared states of emergency. School was canceled for millions of children from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina.
The storm piled up more than a year’s worth of snowfall on some Southern cities. As much as a foot (about 31 centimeters) fell in parts of Arkansas. There were reports of nearly 10 inches (about 25 centimeters) in Little Rock, a city that averages 3.8 inches (9.7 centimeters) a year.
More than 7 inches (about 18 centimeters) fell at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee since late Thursday. The city usually sees 2.7 inches (6.9 centimeters) a year. In some areas where snow tapered off, such as Memphis, the worry was that wet roads would freeze overnight.
Farther south and east into Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, a wintry mix of sleet, snow and ice made travel treacherous. The sleet and snow that fell over parts of Atlanta into South Carolina and North Carolina was changing to freezing rain, and forecasters warned that if the ice accumulation gets heavy enough. power lines and trees could topple.
The number of people without electricity in Georgia began rising sharply in the evening to more than 60,000 customers, mostly in metro Atlanta and to the west.
For kids home from school, the heavy wet stuff also packed into a pretty good snowball.
In Atlanta, Mikayla Johnson, 12, was out making snow angels and snowmen on her day off.
“My first thought was, ‘Wow!’” said Mikayla, who was outdoors with her father, Nate. “We haven’t had snow since I was, like, 4 – good snow, at least. So I was really happy.”
The storm dumped as much as 7 inches (about 18 centimeters) in some spots in central Oklahoma and northern Texas.
And in the Kansas City area, students were back at school in several districts Thursday after three straight snow days, only to see classes called off again Friday because of more snow.
Snow began falling in metro Atlanta before dawn, leading to hundreds of flights being cancelled and hundreds more delayed at the world's busiest airport, according to flight tracking software FlightAware. Controllers declared a ground stop before 8 a.m., meaning no planes could land or take off.
Four passengers were injured after a Delta plane bound for Minneapolis aborted takeoff Friday morning, according to the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. One passenger was hospitalized, while three people were treated at the scene for minor injuries.
The incident contributed to further delays, although Delta said it was unclear whether the weather had anything to do with the flight aborting its takeoff. The airline said there was an indication of an engine issue.
Airports with significant delays and cancellations included those in Charlotte, North Carolina, Dallas-Fort Worth and Nashville. Fifty-five passengers on three American Airlines flights that were diverted from Dallas-Fort Worth spent the night at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urged residents to avoid driving if possible. Some 75,000 fans were expected Friday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington for the college football championship semifinal between Texas and Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl.
The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes ventures south into the U.S., Europe and Asia. Some experts say such events are happening more frequently, paradoxically, because of a warming world.
The cold snap coincided with rare January wildfires tearing through the Los Angeles area.
Southern discomfort
As much as 8 inches (about 20 centimeters) of snow was forecast in parts of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia through Saturday, the National Weather Service said. Snow and ice were likely to accumulate Friday across metro Atlanta, making roadways treacherous and possibly causing power outages.
More than 1 million public school students in metro Atlanta and north Georgia got a snow day or were at home learning online.
After a disastrous winter storm in 2014 left thousands of Atlanta-area workers and schoolchildren stranded overnight away from home, officials in Georgia were quick to cancel in-person classes and close offices Friday.
In the Atlanta area, multiple freeway interchanges were temporarily closed or paralyzed by stalled trucks. Having learned a lesson from past storms when that was a massive problem, this time around emergency crews were towing stalled vehicles, said James Stallings, director of Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
Officials urged drivers to give plows space after a semitrailer hit a Tennessee Department of Transportation truck in Smith County.
In Nashville, Joe Feliciano tromped over snowy sidewalks to deliver the mail Friday. A Florida native who moved to Tennessee in 2023, he said he isn’t used to driving in the snow but the U.S. Postal Service trained him, so now he’s “nervous, but confident” and knows: Just go slow, and be careful.
“This is like, ‘Wow!’ This is a lot of snow,” Feliciano said.
Parts of South Carolina were seeing their first wintry weather in three years. The state Department of Transportation treated interstates and other major highways from Columbia northward, but vehicles were slipping off icy Interstate 95 south of the city. Some schools closed.
With snow, sleet and freezing rain expected across North Carolina, a public outdoor inauguration ceremony Saturday in Raleigh for Gov. Josh Stein and other elected officials was canceled. The storm's trajectory overlapped with much of the western North Carolina area impacted by Hurricane Helene last year.
The snowstorm was expected to arrive Friday evening in Richmond, Virginia. Mayor Danny Avula said officials brought in extra resources to monitor the city's water treatment facility, which suffered a multiday outage following a snowstorm earlier in the week, including a new backup battery and additional water filters.
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Loller reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press reporters Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia; Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City; Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia; Olivia Diaz in Richmond, Virginia; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.
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Read more of the AP's climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment.
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