It has been an unbelievable day up in Alaska with temperatures reaching not only the warmest levels yet but the 62 degrees record this afternoon at Port Alsworth ties the state all-time record for January. 60s in January, in Alaska? I never thought id see the day to be honest. Of course we all know Alaska turns mild when the Lower 48 is cold but this is off the scale.

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While it was unbelievably mild up in Alaska today, a major, potentially historic winter storm is causing havoc across the Deep South at the same time.

Current Southeast radar

Current Nat temps. That’s a lot of VERY cold air..

Folks all the way down to the Gulf Coast were shivering with Houston and New Orleans stuck at freezing while Mobile held in the 20s this afternoon.

That’s over 30 below normal with freezing rain and sleet turning most I-10 bridges into sheets of solid ice. Further north 1-3″ of snow have turned main highways and interstates into parking lots with gridlock in Atlanta, despite a mere 1-2″ snowfall.

Icing as well as SNOW PACKED roads have been a widespread problem on major roadways and bridges throughout LA, MS, AL, GA thus afternoon and will continue into tonight.

Check out these images captured recently.

Atlanta gridlock!

Ice and snow covered bridge just outside New Orleans

Significant icing in Gulf Shores, Alabama

Motorists abandon cars on snowcovered Hwy 280 in Alabama to seek shelter.

Here’s the 4.45pm Southeast temps. Check out the stark difference across central and south Florida.

GFS remains bullish on deep Southeast snow/ice cover including S Alabama into Florida, particularly SE Georgia through coastal Carolinas.

Temps are set to drop into the single digits and even a little below zero across the eastern Carolinas where snow cover should be deepest as the arctic high builds overhead tomorrow night.

Note the model sees single digits in south Alabama into FL Panhandle.

ECMWF temps much more conservative and realistic with Thursday AM over snow cover but still darn cold. 0 to -5 eastern Carolinas.

 

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Tags: Atlanta snowstorm, Deep South snowstorm, Southeast snowstorm