Copiah County, Miss. tornado damage - Dec. 9 (Photo:WFO Jackson)
(Dec. 12, 2008) - Between December 9th and 11th, NOAA's National Weather Service received a total of 33 tornado reports and 122 high wind reports affecting Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. To add insult to injury, Texas, southern Louisiana and Mississippi also had to contend with heavy snowfall accumulations in the wake of the storms.
Early December snowfalls are rare events in the Deep South. By Wednesday evening, three to five inches of snow had fallen in the Houston-Beaumont area. Another three to six inches had accumulated along a stretch of Louisiana, from Lake Charles and Baton Rouge to Lake Pontchartrain. Portions of Louisiana and Mississippi received up to eight inches of wet snow. And New Orleans recorded up to 1.5 inches.
"This is the earliest measurable snowfall ever recorded in New Orleans," said Tom Bradshaw, chief, Meteorological Service Branch, National Weather Service Southern Region. "Previously, the earliest measurable snowfall on record for New Orleans was December 22, 1989, and the last time New Orleans had a measurable amount of snow -- was in 2004."
At the height of the winter storm, as many as 22,000 customers were without power in Louisiana and Mississippi, bridges iced up, roads were closed and numerous traffic accidents were reported throughout the region, including one fatality. Many schools and businesses were closed or delayed opening.
By Friday, a welcome high pressure system dominated the south as the storm system made its way up the East Coast bringing rain, sleet or snow from South Carolina to Maine.
Jackson County, Ala. tornado damage - Dec. 10 (Photo: WFO Huntsville)
Snow at National Weather Service forecast office in Lake Charles, La. (Photo: WFO Lake Charles)
