Cold/Wind Chill — Calcasieu, Louisiana

2010-01-08 to 2010-01-11 · Calcasieu, Louisiana

Event narrative

Calcasieu Parish coroner's office reported a 71 year old Mossville man died of exposure to freezing temperatures on Friday, January 8. His body was not discovered until Monday, January 11, along the side of a parish road. KPLC-TV reported that Vinton and Carlyss had low water reserves in their respective city's water towers. All Calcasieu Parish Schools were closed Friday January 8th due to the cold temperatures and low wind chill readings. Sporadic power outages affected much of the parish throughout the event, with the National Weather Service office losing power briefly during the morning of Sunday January 10th.

Wider weather episode

A deep upper level trough moving eastward across the United States forced a bitterly cold Arctic airmass southward from Canada into the Gulf Coast states on January 7, 2010. This airmass remained in place for several days across southwest Louisiana, leading to the coldest temperatures seen across this region since February 1996. Several record low temperatures were set, along with a few record low maximum temperatures. Many locations in central Louisiana remained below freezing for over 36 hours from around midnight early on January 8th through the afternoon on Saturday January 9th.

These bitterly cold temperatures led to several school closures, numerous weather-related fires, sporadic power outages, and widespread plumbing ruptures across the region. One man reportedly froze to death outdoors in Mossville in Calcasieu Parish.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 210192. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.