By the second week of January a strong 500 mb ridge had already set-up over the eastern North Pacific blocking the normal west to east storm tracks into the western US. NOAA models were predicting that the ridge would hold through at least the third week of January as a deep trough was expected to prevail over east-central North America. This winter pattern is ideal for allowing very cold Arctic air masses to move rapidly southward across western Canada and into the central and eastern US. and models were predicting very cold air to prevail, especially during the 2nd half of January.
500 mb Anomaly forecast for Wed Jan 22nd
A particularly strong Arctic High was forecast to plunge southward out of Canada and over much of the US during the weekend of January 18th and 19th through much of the following week.
NOAA Sfc Forecast for Sun Jan 19th
By January 17th NOAA was predicting that a low pressure disturbance was forecast to form over the Gulf of Mexico and move eastward towards Florida bringing significant snow and ice to portions of the deep south, including northern Florida the following Tuesday and Wednesday. NOAA NWS offices started to issue warnings for bitter cold advising to expect the coldest air of the season.
Advisories were issued for bitterly cold arctic air and a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain overspreading south-central Texas to the central Gulf Coast during Monday night. Snow or a snow, sleet, freezing rain mix was forecast for cities from San Antonio to Houston and New Orleans to Albany, GA while freezing rain was expected to fall on South Texas and portions of southern Georgia and northern Florida as the winter storm tracked Tuesday/Tuesday night.
NOAA Sfc Forecast for early Tuesday Morning, Jan 21st
By Tuesday, January 21st, a strong jet stream was funneling Arctic air directly over the South where it interacted with warm moist air over the Gulf. An area of low pressure developed over the western Gulf by early on the 21st moving east to east-southeast to the Florida Straits by early the next day.
GFS 500 mb Forecast for eary Tuesday Morning
Photo snow falling near New Orleans
A band of heavy snow moved from Texas across Louisiana to the Florida Pandle and into southern Georgia. Snowfall totals tied a 130-year-old record in New Orleans, measuring 10 inches. 6-13 inches of snow were deposited across much of southern Louisiana. In Alabama, Mobile Regional Airport set a new 2-day snowfall record with an impressive 7.5 inches which surpassed the previous 2-day record of 6.0 inches of snow in February of 1895.
Pensacola, FL, shattered its previous 2-day snowfall record with an incredible 8.9 inches of snow which blew away the prior 2-day record of 3.0 inches during the February Snowstorm of 1895. This snowstorm also surpassed the snow and ice accumulations from the historic 2014 event.
NOAA Satellite Image shoing widespread snow on the ground
NOAA Storm Summary https://www.weather.gov/mob/2025_January_Snow
