The snow is still falling along the Gulf coast, but it’s already considered to be a record breaker. Early reports put the snowfall at Mobile Regional Airport at over six inches and five more in Pensacola. If so, that would break the five inch record in Alabama’s Port City set back in 1881. There was also three inches that fell in 1973 and a dusting in late 2017 and 2018. APR Gulf coast correspondent Lynn Oldshue was in the thick of it.
“Gulf Coast residents spent yesterday digging in closets for coats, hats and gloves for what’s being called this area’s biggest snow day in over 50 years,” she reported to APR. “Blizzard is a word rarely said in south Alabama, but this one closed schools, businesses, and roads. Social media is filled with videos of snowball fights on the beach, sledding on flat yards, and snowboarding in midtown Mobile. There are photos of kids and pets stepping in snow for the first time as well as icicles hanging from fountains and frozen beards. Meteorologists say this winter wonderland is here for a day or so, and motorists are being warned to stay off the roads.”
The winter storm sweeping through the U.S. South was dumping snow at levels millions of residents haven’t seen before. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico was combining with a low-pressure system and chilly air to drop significant amounts of snow in some spots. That included 10.5 inches near Lafayette, Louisiana by Tuesday afternoon — within striking distance of the state record of 13 inches set in 1960…