Before December 11th last year, it had been nearly 20 years since Baton Rouge saw any accumulation of snow, much less several inches. Now, 1 year after the biggest snowfall i’ve ever witnessed, the National Weather Service has released a forecast that calls for one half to one inch of accumulation for the Baton Rouge area. Here is the official news release:
This morning, the NWS in Slidell issued a Special Weather Statement on the likelihood of snow Friday night across northern portions of southeast Louisiana into inland southern Mississippi (including Baton Rouge, Franklinton, and McComb), with a mixture of snow and sleet, and rain and sleet as you head south to the south shore of Lake
Pontchartrain to the Mississippi Gulf coast. Here is the link to the
Special Weather Statement:
http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=lix&wwa=special%20weather%20statement
If we were expecting 2 inches or greater snow accumulations, or significant sleet accumulations, we would have issued a Winter Storm Watch at this point. However, it appears the higher snow accumulations will be one half to one inch mainly north of a line from metro Baton Rouge to just north of Hammond to Poplarville, and mainly on grassy surfaces and elevated bridges, overpasses, and other elevated road structures once temperatures drop into the lower 30s after midnight.
Minor accumulations of snow and sleet (less than one-half inch) could occur as far south as Napoleonville to LaPlace to the northshore of Lake Pontchartrain to the inland portions of the Miss. coastal counties, and mainly after midnight when temperatures fall into the mid 30s.
A fairly strong low pressure system is forecast to pass through the north central Gulf of Mexico Friday night. The main difference between this storm and the storm from December 11 of last year is in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Last year’s storm had a well defined upper low pressure area that drew and wrapped deep moist air from the Gulf of Mexico into the cold air just above the surface and around the upper low over southeast Louisiana and south Mississippi. The reason we are expecting lighter snows from this year’s December system is the upper level storm will be an open and fast moving trough that will not be able to draw as much moisture into the cold air. Confidence in this forecast is a bit higher than normal based on preferred model trends and analysis, and due to the fact that the wintry weather is forecast within
48 hours. For additional weather information including our graphical forecasts, please visit our web site:
