Record snowfall snarls cities as deadly cold stalks the south
Winter storm brings record-breaking snow across the US Gulf Coast, snarls cities in the south
At least 10 people were killed, including three by exposure to the arctic cold and five in a crash on an icy road in South Texas
J. David Goodman
Published 22.01.25, 10:40 AM
A powerful winter storm tore across the Gulf Coast on Tuesday, piling snow atop white sand beaches and smothering cities with snowfall totals unseen for decades, if not a century.
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Julie Allerhand plays with her dogs on a snow-covered street in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Emily Kask/The New York Times)
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By evening, enough snow had fallen around Pensacola, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama, to easily break records set by an 1895 Gulf storm — and the snow hadn’t tapered off there yet.
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A person walks along the frozen Chicago River in Chicago, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Jamie Kelter Davis/The New York Times)
At least 10 people were killed, including three by exposure to the arctic cold and five in a crash on an icy road in South Texas.
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Snow falls on the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans on Tuesday morning, Jan. 21, 2025. A potentially record-breaking winter storm is bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain and blizzard warnings to parts of the southeastern United States where even light flurries are a rare sight, and residents are ill-prepared for a hard freeze. (Emily Kask/The New York Times)
Across the region, officials urged residents to stay home as hundreds of major crashes were reported on roads covered in ice, which might not melt for days.
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Ginny Del Campo pulls Derby Hallford on a sled during a rare snowfall in the Westbury neighborhood of Houston on Tuesday morning, Jan. 21, 2025. A potentially record-breaking winter storm is bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain and blizzard warnings to parts of the southeastern United States where even light flurries are a rare sight, and residents are ill-prepared for a hard freeze. (Annie Mulligan/The New York Times)
Still, the rare event brought many people outside to stare, sled and make snowmen. The last significant snowfall in Houston — which, like many other Sun Belt cities, has no snow plows to clear the slick streets — was in 1960.
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Orlando Smiley and his wife Queenie Bautista make a snowman on Canal Street as a winter storm drops snow on New Orleans, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Kathleen Flynn/The New York Times)
Tuesday’s matched or maybe topped it. The New Orleans airport had 8 inches of snow, also a record.
But the highest snowfall total appeared to be 10.5 inches in Rayne, Louisiana, just west of Lafayette, according to reports to the National Weather Service.
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Members of the Presswood family venture outside to enjoy a rare snowfall in the Westbury neighborhood of Houston on Tuesday morning, Jan. 21, 2025. A potentially record-breaking winter storm is bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain and blizzard warnings to parts of the southeastern United States where even light flurries are a rare sight, and residents are ill-prepared for a hard freeze. (Annie Mulligan/The New York Times)
Houston snowfall
About 3 to 4 inches of snow fell in Houston, the most in a generation. The city’s two airports canceled all flights, and the weather service advised drivers to stay off the roads “at all costs.”
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Snow falls on the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans on Tuesday morning, Jan. 21, 2025. A potentially record-breaking winter storm is bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain and blizzard warnings to parts of the southeastern United States where even light flurries are a rare sight, and residents are ill-prepared for a hard freeze. (Emily Kask/The New York Times)
The Texas electricity grid, crippled by a major winter storm in 2021, was holding steady.
Unusual emergency
The first-ever blizzard warning was issued for parts of Louisiana and Texas, and governors across the South, more accustomed to threats from hurricanes than winter storms, issued state of emergency declarations.
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Larissa Lira and Daniel Spasic walk down Canal Street as a winter storm drops snow on New Orleans, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. A potentially record-breaking winter storm was bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain and blizzard warnings to parts of the southeastern United States. (Kathleen Flynn/The New York Times)
School campuses were shuttered, in some cases through Wednesday.
Travel disruptions
Airports across the Southeast closed, and more than 2,000 flights were canceled in and out of the United States, according to the tracking service FlightAware.
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Richard Duarte stands in the street outside his home in the French Quarter of New Orleans during a snowfall on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. A potentially record-breaking winter storm is bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain and blizzard warnings to parts of the southeastern United States where even light flurries are a rare sight, and residents are ill-prepared for a hard freeze. (Kathleen Flynn/The New York Times)
Rail service also took a hit, with Amtrak announcing cancellations and delays. And Interstate 10 was shut down in and around New Orleans.
Across the country
The Gulf storm is part of an intense blast of Arctic air that has brought heavy snow to the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, and frigid temperatures to the Rockies and the Upper Midwest.
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A pedestrian makes their way down a snow-covered street in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. A potentially record-breaking winter storm was bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain and blizzard warnings to parts of the southeastern United States. (Emily Kask/The New York Times)
Wind chills of minus-30 Fahrenheit in the Texas Panhandle were recorded overnight, along with minus-37 in parts of Iowa.
The cause
The polar vortex — a large, whirling mass of Arctic air — is usually kept in check by the jet stream. But when the jet stream gets wobbly, the cold air can bust out and shift south.
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Kevin Bennett smokes in the French Quarter as a winter storm drops snow on New Orleans, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Kathleen Flynn/The New York Times)
A 2021 study suggested that changes in the Arctic, which fossil fuel emissions are warming twice as quickly as the rest of the globe, could be stretching the polar vortex and making the jet stream more wobbly.
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
