Winter Storm — Inland Gulf, Florida

2014-01-28 to 2014-01-29 · Inland Gulf, Florida

Wider weather episode

The third winter storm to impact the NWS Tallahassee County warning area in five years brought a wintry mix of precipitation to virtually the entire forecast area. The predominant precipitation types were sleet and freezing rain. Total liquid equivalent estimates were estimated to be greater than a quarter inch across portions of most of the Florida Panhandle counties. Several roads were closed, including a large stretch of Interstate 10 in the Florida Panhandle. Most bridges were closed at one point from Tallahassee westward, and during the peak of the event, there was no road access to cross over the Apalachicola River. This led to very large transportation impacts with significant monetary losses for some trucking companies. Even the bridge going to St. George Island was closed at one point due to ice!

On the morning of January 28th, there was a trough approaching from the west with moist southwest flow and precipitation ahead of it over the Southeast. At the surface, a cold front was stalled across north central Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. However, the deep arctic air was still well north of our region. During the day, the precipitation changed over to snow and/or sleet in places like Atlanta, Birmingham, Macon, and Mobile, as progressively colder air flowed into the region. This caused major traffic problems, especially in Atlanta.

Late in the afternoon and early evening the rain began to change to freezing rain and sleet in portions of Southeast Alabama, Southwest Georgia, and western portions of the Florida Panhandle. There appeared to be a secondary cold front (a fairly common occurrence when arctic air moves southward) that helped accelerate the advance of the cold air and changeover to freezing/frozen precipitation during the evening.

During the night (January 28th ' January 29th) the cold air continued to spread south and east. By the morning of January 29th, many locations in our forecast area had changed to either freezing rain, sleet, or a mix, including Tallahassee. Much drier air in the mid to upper atmosphere overspread Southeast Alabama and Southwest Georgia. This caused the precipitation to end there during the morning hours. However, light wintry precipitation lingered across the Florida Big Bend throughout the day, as the upper level trough continued to approach from the west. The combination of the unusually cold air and thick clouds prevented many locations from getting above freezing, a very rare occurrence in the Deep South.

The Wednesday morning surface chart showed the main cold front finally on the move again through South Florida, while high pressure and very cold, dry air continued to infiltrate the Gulf Coast Region. This precipitation tapered off during the evening as the atmosphere dried out.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 491798. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.