A frigid storm drops rare snow on Houston and New Orleans as Florida readies plows in the Panhandle

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A rare frigid storm charged through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday, blanketing New Orleans and Houston with snow that closed highways, grounded nearly all flights and canceled school for more than a million students more accustomed to hurricane dismissals than snow days.

The storm prompted the first ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border, and snowplows were at the ready in the Florida Panhandle.

In the Texas capital, two people died in the cold weather, according to a statement from the city of Austin. No details were provided, but the city said emergency crews had responded to more than a dozen “cold exposure” calls. Officials said one person died from hypothermia in Georgia.

Snow covered the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots, including Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida. The heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain hitting parts of the Deep South came as a blast of Arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.

A powdery South made for some head-turning scenes — a snowball fight on a Gulf Shores beach, sledding in a laundry basket in Montgomery, Alabama, pool-tubing down a Houston hill.

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One of the country’s quirkiest cities, New Orleans, didn’t disappoint under the snowy spotlight. There was an attempt at urban skiing along Bourbon Street; a priest and nuns in a snowball fight outside a suburban church; snowboarding behind a golf cart; and sledding down the snow-covered Mississippi River levees on kayaks, cardboard boxes and inflatable alligators.

High school teacher David Delio and his two daughters glided down the levee on a yoga mat and a boogie board.

“This is a white-out in New Orleans, this is a snow-a-cane,” Delio said. “We’ve had tons of hurricane days but never a snow day.”

The nuns at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School near New Orleans encouraged their students last week to pray to saints, including Our Lady of the Snows — a devotional term for Mary, mother of Jesus — for the snow day they received Tuesday, said the Rev. Tim Hedrick. The priest said he invited the nuns to make snow angels, and they challenged him to a snowball fight that has since received tens of thousands of views on social media.

“It’s a fun way to show that priests and sisters are humans, too, and they can have fun,” Hedrick said.

It has been more than a decade since snow last fell on New Orleans. With more than 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow in parts of the city Tuesday, New Orleans has far surpassed its record — 2.7 inches (6.8 centimeters) on Dec. 31, 1963 — according to the National Weather Service. There were unofficial reports of 10 inches (26 centimeters) of snow in New Orleans in 1895, NWS meteorologist Christopher Bannan said.

For Houston, the winter blast marks the latest dramatic fluctuation in extreme weather. Hurricane Beryl devastated the city in July, killing dozens and knocking out power to large swaths of the city. Several months later, a winter storm has dumped the most snow in decades over the Houston area.

Nearly 2,000 flights to, from or within the U.S. were canceled Tuesday, with about 10,000 others delayed, according to online tracker FlightAware.com. Both Houston airports suspended flight operations starting Tuesday. Nearly every flight was cancelled at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport, but most airlines planned to resume operations Wednesday.

Alvaro Perez was hunkering down at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Tuesday after his flight to El Salvador was canceled. His new departure is scheduled for Thursday.

“I’ll just ride it and stay here,” Perez said.

Snow on the Gulf Coast

Ahead of the storm, governors in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and even Florida — the Sunshine State — declared states of emergency and many school systems canceled classes Tuesday. School closures were planned in some coastal communities in North and South Carolina.

The NWS said up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of snow fell in the Houston area. Texas transportation officials said more than 20 snowplows were in use across nearly 12,000 lane miles in the Houston area, which lacks its own city or county plows.

Forecasters say snowfall could stretch from north Georgia, through Atlanta, and into southern portions unaccustomed to such weather.

Parts of the Florida Panhandle were coated white Tuesday. Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, last saw snow in 2018 — just 0.1 of an inch (0.25 centimeters), according to the weather service. Tallahassee’s highest snowfall on record was 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) in 1958.

“Believe it or not, in the state of Florida we’re mobilizing snowplows,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Mobile, Alabama, hit 5.4 inches (13.7 centimeters) and counting Tuesday, topping the city’s one-day snowfall record of 5 inches (12.7 centimeters), set Jan. 24, 1881, and nearing its all-time snowfall record of 6 inches (15.5 centimeters) in 1895, the weather service said.

The blizzard warning in effect until midday Tuesday was the first issued by the office in Lake Charles, Louisiana, according to meteorologist Donald Jones.

Louisiana transportation agency workers worked through the night to prepare bridges and roadways. Nonetheless, Louisiana State Police said they have already responded to more than 50 crashes Tuesday, and pleaded for people to stay home.

Return of the Arctic blast

This latest cold snap comes from a disruption in the polar vortex, the ring of cold air usually trapped at the North Pole.

Frigid cold persisted across the eastern two-thirds of the country as the East Coast was blanketed in snow while people from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine shivered in bitter cold. The NWS said normal temperatures would return slowly by the end of the week.

A state of emergency was declared in at least a dozen New York counties with up to 2 feet (60 centimeters) of lake-effect snow and extreme cold expected around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie through Wednesday.

Wind chills are expected to reach minus 30 F to minus 50 F (minus 34 C to minus 46 C) across the Dakotas and into the Upper Midwest through Friday, the NWS warned. Subzero wind chills were forecast from the Central Plains eastward through Wednesday night.

Santa Ana winds expected to return to Southern California

In Southern California, where blazes have killed at least 27 people and burned thousands of homes, dry conditions and strong Santa Ana winds remained a concern.

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Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Jack Brook in New Orleans; Sara Cline in Key Largo, Florida; Julie Walker in New York; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; Corey Williams in Detroit; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida; Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta; Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama; Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed.