Historic snow and ensuing cold to cause more than $14 billion in economic impacts across the South

AccuWeather

Record-breaking snow followed by days of frigid temperatures and refreezing is causing serious economic issues, as AccuWeather's Jon Porter explains.

Transcript

00:00Let's go ahead and go over to AccuWeather chief meteorologist John Porter and talk a little bit

00:05more about how we got to this economic damage estimate. Well good afternoon and I think that

00:11live camera that we had there on Bourbon Street is showcasing exactly the challenges that are

00:16still occurring though the sun is the sun is back out only 33 degrees that means that as

00:22temperatures fall this evening we're gonna have a refreeze of all of all of that slush and more

00:28travel problems on the way and that's one of the factors that went into our estimate here

00:33of 14 to 17 billion dollars in total damage and economic loss from this historic storm

00:40and let's as we always do let's put that into context and we can see that number and how it

00:44compares to the wildfires in California in recent weeks which was 250 to 275 billion dollars of

00:51damage and of course another cold event to look at was that big deep freeze across Texas and

00:57surrounding states back in February 2021 and remember that caused a near failure of the Texas

01:02power grid and all kinds of problems with with the damaged pipes and and all kinds of other impacts

01:09that AccuWeather estimated was about 10 times the cost of our most recent storm so a costly one but

01:16we've seen many more impacts from other natural disasters. And John as we look at the tail of

01:22the tape here I saw that Baldwin County schools on the east side of the Mobile Metro no school

01:27until Monday they're gonna head back next week this is not just a one or two day disruption

01:31amazing to see the path that this storm took bringing snow to some of the oil rigs offshore.

01:36Well that's exactly the point and that's one of the reasons that the damage estimate when we

01:40computed all of the business losses from the disruption in commerce along the heavily trafficked

01:47I-10 corridor from Houston to Lake Charles to New Orleans and east into the Florida panhandle

01:52let's face it that's a main thoroughfare for commerce and so many trucks and other business

01:59operations had to cease and as you mentioned just communities were have been shut down

02:04not only for one day but for multiple days because of not only this historic snow but also the cold

02:10that will follow which means that the impacts and slippery roads in some areas especially New

02:15Orleans out east to north Florida will persist for several days. Yeah John you mentioned that

02:22refreeze threat but you know with the cold air the snow still on the ground that's part of the

02:26reason that we're talking about days of impacts. Yeah that's absolutely correct and and we don't

02:31want anybody to be lulled into any false sense of security in terms of conditions can improve

02:35in some spots especially on the interstates during the day but watch those elevated bridge surfaces

02:42and those those overpasses we've a lot of them along the gulf coast they're going to be slippery

02:48where that slush or what was just wet during the day refreezes as temperature falls below 32.

02:55And for a little historical context John this was not just one or two cities we have in two cases

03:00all time records broken I say two we could argue three the period of records a little bit different

03:06there in New Orleans where the books only officially go back for the current climate

03:10site to 1948 but you go back into the deep climate books there the history books we did

03:15have a similar storm back at the late 1800s there in New Orleans. Right the the standard the snow of

03:20storm of record in New Orleans before where there had been eight to ten inches of snow in the New

03:25Orleans area you have to go all the way back to 1895 and this storm was very similar to that storm

03:32but as you mentioned the current period of record at the in the New Orleans area goes the records go

03:36back to 1948 it's only a record snow and it wasn't one of these situations where it was close

03:42this just shattered the records as it did in other locations where those periods of record

03:48went back to the late 1800s and when you have records like this being broken long-standing

03:53records that's why we're talking about this being a truly historic storm and that's why

03:57AccuWeather experts identified before other sources that this was going to be a major

04:02disruption and a truly dangerous storm so people could stay safer and make the best decisions.

04:07All right we always appreciate your insight there AccuWeather chief meteorologist John Porter

04:11thanks again John. You bet thank you.

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