The bitter winter climate that has caused icy temperatures in parts of the United States is threatening with bringing snowfalls and frosts throughout the south, which few times sees light snowfalls, much less piles of snow.
The National Weather Service is forecasting for this Wednesday a mixture of snow and freezing rain mainly along the Atlantic coast, from Florida to North Carolina. It warned that the thruways covered in ice and little visibility could make driving in the region unstable.
Atlanta, on Tuesday January 2. Photo: David Goldman / AP.
In Savannah, a coastal city that hasn’t seen an intense snowfall since February 2010, up to 5 centimeters (2 inches) of snow was forecasted as well as hail. While the municipal authorities were filling trucks with sand to spread on the main streets, Mayor Eddie DeLoach urged residents to stay at home and stay away from roads.
“The streets will be slippery,” said DeLoach during a press conference on Tuesday. “We could have serious problems with persons who are not used to driving in this type of weather.”
Jets of water rise from a frozen fountain close to the center of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday January 2, 2018. Photo: Chuck Burton / AP.
The icy conditions also altered the morning traffic in Florida when the authorities were forced to close a stretch of the Interstate 10 to the east of Tallahassee.
Omar Elkhalidi uses a piece of wood to remove the ice accumulated during the night on his windshield due to the icy temperatures on Wednesday January 3, 2018. Photo: Stephen B. Morton / AP.
In other parts of the United States, the dangerously cold temperatures had caused at least a dozen deaths, as well as the freezing of a hydraulic tower in Iowa and the suspension of the ferry service in New York.
A view of the banks of the Des Moines River in Iowa, in the midst of an intense cold wave, on January 1, 2018. Photo: Matt Milner / The Ottumwa Courier via AP.
Conditioned shelters have been opened throughout the south during the monitoring of the cold and the warnings issued in the region, among them of strong frost for a great deal of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Base of the U.S. waterfall, on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, in Ontario, on January 2, 2018. Photo: Aaron Lynett / The Canadian Press via AP.
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