Southern States Declare Emergencies Over Snowstorm

The Associated Press reports:

A powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward into southern U.S. states overnight, prompting governors to declare states of emergency and shuttering schools across the region. School was canceled Friday for millions of children across a wide tract of southern states from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina.

Some of the heaviest snowfall was expected Friday across the northern half of Arkansas and much of Tennessee, with totals in some parts of those states ranging from 6 to 9 inches (about 15 to 22 centimeters), according to the National Weather Service. Further south and east into Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain made travel treacherous.

CNN reports:

The storm’s footprint will only get more expansive as it delivers disruptive weather over a nearly 1,400 mile section of the South into the weekend amid the coldest air of the season, threatening major to extreme impacts in a region ill-adapted to winter weather.

Wintry precipitation began in portions of western and northern Texas early Thursday morning and expanded into North Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas by the afternoon while heavy rain developed farther south.

States of emergency have been declared by governors and officials in Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina and dozens of counties in Oklahoma and Alabama as state agencies brace for storm impacts.

The Weather Channel has named it Winter Storm Cora.