Winter Storm Affects Southern U.S.

Southern Kentucky is expecting light snow at best tonight associated with an area of surface low pressure currently located near northern Florida. This same system has brought significant snow to places towards our south that are not accustomed to seeing much wintry precipitation. The hazards map below from the National Weather Service shows winter storm warnings in pink and winter weather advisories in blue.

One of the hardest hit areas has been northern Alabama where anywhere from a few inches to a foot of snow has fallen. Check out this map of snowfall reports across the region. The highest total in Alabama thus far has been 12″ in the towns of Natural Bridge and Guin.

Nine counties in Alabama including the city of Birmingham have issued the following civil emergency message discouraging travel tonight:

“NUMEROUS ROADWAYS…INCLUDING SOME MAJOR HIGHWAYS…ARE HAZARDOUS
DUE TO SNOW AND ICE. SOME OF THESE ROADWAYS HAVE BECOME IMPASSABLE.
THESE CONDITIONS MAY PERSIST THROUGH 6AM. THESE COUNTY EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT AGENCIES REQUEST THAT TRAVEL BE LIMITED TO EMERGENCIES
ONLY FOR YOUR SAFETY AND THE SAFETY OF FIRST RESPONDERS.”

This storm will move off to the northeast overnight and continue to bring snowfall to some southern states. Snowfall totals in many locations may actually approach or surpass their average seasonal totals.