Winter storm watch to be in effect in Central, South Louisiana all day Tuesday

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch covering much of central and south Louisiana.

It will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and will last a full 24 hours.

Meteorologist Donald Jones with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles says we are looking at the biggest snowfall event in decades.

“We’re looking at anywhere between about three to up to seven inches of snowfall (on) Tuesday,” Jones says. “It’s going to begin shortly after midnight and kind of continue through the day. And that’s going to be one of the more significant snowfall seen in recorded history really across parts of this area.”

While snow in Louisiana is rare, all 64 parishes have experienced measurable snow at least once since records have been kept.

The record snowfall event for south Louisiana happened in 1895, when 20 inches of snow was recorded in Lake Charles.

Central Louisiana is looking at the highest snowfall totals.

Alexandria, Leesville, Bunkie, Opelousas and DeRidder could see a half a foot of snow.

“Five to seven inches is our first estimate,” says Jones. “I’m not going to call it a guess, but that’s our forecast for north of the I-10 corridor; and then right along the I-10 corridor in south, three to five inches. That is a significant snowfall for this area and one of the highest we’ve seen in quite some time.”

Jones says because temperatures will be below freezing for a long period, the snow will likely stick around for a couple of days.

“Any snow that falls is going to accumulate, and it’s going to remain on the ground at least through Wednesday afternoon,” Jones warns. “I think we’re going to rise above freezing for a few hours Wednesday afternoon. That may allow it to start to thaw out a little bit. But if it doesn’t thaw out in that few hour period, then we’re going to go into Thursday as well.”

Jones says the probability of snow falling south of I-20 to the coast is 70% to 90%.

“These will likely continue to increase as we go through the next couple of days, but to see a 70% to 90% chance of snow three days in advance in this part of the world, that’s extremely rare,” Jones says. “That’s something I don’t think I’ve seen at any point in my career so far in the 16 years I’ve been a meteorologist.”