The polar vortex readies to dump snow on Texas and its neighbors
By JAMIE STENGLE and SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) — An area stretching from Texas to Tennessee braced Wednesday for the expected arrival of freezing rain and snow, as some other parts of the country that already received an arctic blast this week prepared to go another round with the plunging polar vortex.
Arkansas' capital, Little Rock, closed schools on Thursday and Friday in preparation for the storm, which could start dumping heavy snow on the region overnight. Although certain parts of the U.S. began to emerge from a deep freeze, life still hadn't returned to normal in other locales, including the Kansas City area, which canceled classes Wednesday for a third-straight day, and the Virginia capital, Richmond, which was still under a weather-related water-boil advisory until at least Friday.
The cold snap coincided with rare January wildfires that were tearing through the Los Angeles area, forcing residents to flee from burning homes through flames, ferocious winds and towering clouds of smoke.
A mix of sleet, snow and freezing rain is expected to fall on a stretch of the U.S. from New Mexico to Alabama starting Wednesday night and early Thursday, with the heaviest amounts likely in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas, according to the National Weather Service. In the most southern locations, the snow could turn into sleet and freezing rain, which meteorologists warn could cause hazardous driving conditions.
That system is expected to push northeastward by Friday with a mix of heavy snow and freezing rain forecast from southeastern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas all the way to the Virginia and North Carolina coasts.
As much as 8 inches (about 20 centimeters) of snow could fall in scattered parts of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia through Saturday, the weather service said.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced the closure of some state offices on Friday, while Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said all city offices would be closed that day, with employees working remotely.
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 cold air outbreaks are happening more frequently, paradoxically, because of a warming world.
In the Dallas area, crews treated the roads ahead of the expected arrival of 2 to 4 inches (about 5 to 10 centimeters) of snow on Thursday, along with sleet and rain. Up to 5 inches is expected farther north near the Oklahoma state line, the weather service said.
Mark Reid said Wednesday that he has been very busy delivering groceries for Instacart.
“I'm going to be done probably about 5 or 6 (p.m.) today and then tomorrow I'm going to be in the house," Reid said outside of a Dallas grocery store as he loaded his fourth order of the day into his car.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the state had deployed several emergency agencies and opened hundreds of warming centers ahead of the storm.
“The lives of our fellow Texans are by far the most important thing,” he said, warning affected residents to avoid driving if possible.
Abbott also expressed confidence in the state's power grid, which failed during an unusually cold storm in 2021, leaving more than 3 million residents without power and resulting in the deaths of more than 200 people. He said that if an outage occurs this week, it's likely due to a downed power line.
“If there is a loss of power, it’s not going to be because of the power grid,” the governor said.
The storm could make the roads slick on Friday as 75,000 fans head to AT&T Stadium in Arlington to see Texas play Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Arlington spokesperson Susan Shrock said crews will be ready to address any hazardous road conditions around the stadium.
Some parts of Kansas have received nearly an entire year's average of snow over the past few days, hitting farmers and ranchers “in ways that we haven't seen in this area for a very, very long time, potentially a lifetime,” said Chip Redmond, a meteorologist at Kansas State University.
The risk is real: Calves, especially, can die when temperatures slip below zero. And so much snow in rural areas can keep farmers from reaching herds with food and water
In northern Florida, growers were most concerned about the ferns grown for floral arrangements, with Valentine's Day only a month away.
Major damage to citrus trees, which typically occurs when temperatures drop to 28 degrees (minus 2 degrees Celsius) or below for several hours, is less likely. Most of Florida’s commercial citrus groves are far south enough that they haven't been affected by this week's recent cold snap.
Richmond will remain under a boil-water advisory until at least Friday as officials work to restore the city’s water reservoir system, which malfunctioned after a storm this week caused a power outage, Mayor Danny Avula said.
The city of more than 200,000 residents is distributing bottled water at 11 sites, and is delivering it to older residents and others who are unable to get to those sites, officials said.
“We've got families in the city, they don't have any water,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Wednesday. “We've got young children where mothers are asking, ‘What do I do about baby formula?’”
Due to the problems in Richmond, the first working day of the legislative session was postponed, as the state Capitol and General Assembly buildings remained closed on Wednesday.
More than 50,000 customers were without power on Wednesday in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Virginia and West Virginia, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.
More than 2,000 flights in the U.S. were delayed or canceled before midday on Wednesday, according to tracking platform Flight Aware. More than 5,000 flights into or out of the U.S. were delayed Tuesday.
Hundreds of car accidents were reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky earlier this week, and a state trooper was treated for injuries after his patrol car was hit.
Three people died in vehicle crashes in Virginia, according to state police. Other weather-related fatal accidents occurred Sunday near Charleston, West Virginia, and Monday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Kansas, where over a foot (30 centimeters) of snow fell in places, had two deadly weekend crashes.
And in In Birmingham, Alabama, where temperatures fell below freezing, the Jefferson County coroner’s office said Wednesday that it was investigating three possible deaths from hypothermia that had occurred over the past 24 hours.
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Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press reporters Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City; Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta; Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Chris O’Meara in Tampa, Florida; in John Raby in Cross Lanes, West Virginia; Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Julie Walker in New York; 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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