Extreme Cold/Wind Chill in Catahoula, Louisiana

Wind chills across the parish fell as low as -5 degrees during the early morning of January 26th.

A historically damaging ice storm occurred across northeast Louisiana and the surrounding region. The corridor of heaviest ice accretion, with ice thickness measured at up to one inch, spanned from Richland Parish, including the area from Rayville to Delhi, northeastward through West and East Carroll parishes and the Lake Providence area. Tree damage in this region was tremendous, and several homes were damaged or destroyed by falling trees. Travel impacts persisted through Friday, January 30th in some areas. More than 143,000 customers in Louisiana lost power during the peak of the storm with thousands of power poles broken. Full power restoration took more than two weeks in the hardest hit areas, and it took more than one week for some customers in East Carroll, Franklin, Madison, Morehouse, Richland, and West Carroll parishes. Some meters remained unpowered for three weeks in the hardest hit portions of our area. The loss of electricity and the very cold temperatures that followed resulted in the loss of water in several communities.

Significant sleet accumulations, as high as 2 in Morehouse Parish occurred over parts of the area as well. In these areas, the weight of the accumulation resulted in the collapse of several sheds, carports, gas station awnings and the roofs of some buildings. Sleet remained on the ground across much of Morehouse Parish for an entire week.

Bitter cold conditions followed the storm, with temperatures as low as 10 to 15 degrees. Note: At several area weather stations, the lowest wind chill was unavailable because the anemometer was frozen and unable to record wind speed data.

One death due to hypothermia occurred in Franklin Parish.