The Farmer's Forecast: Snow and Ice?
By Nick Mikulas
We are now about 5 days out from a potentially impactful winter storm that could affect the entire state. Here’s what we know so far.
First and foremost, it will get cold. Very cold. We could easily see lows in the teens in the northern third of Louisiana, with a hard freeze possible to the coast. There will be at least 3 nights where we see conditions like that, and it’s possible we could see even colder conditions if we end up seeing significant snow and ice.
That’s the big question absolutely everyone is asking me. Will there be snow or ice? The answer is still maybe, but is trending toward yes. The crazy thing is, this threat stretches from the Arkansas border to, in some scenarios, Grand Isle! It’s not unprecedented, but it sure isn’t a normal thing to see. As my concern level slowly increases, I’ll say that any preparations that take days instead of hours should probably be started soon. I don’t like to sound false alarms, but I also know that this one has at least a decent chance to bring wintry weather to a large part, or all of the state.
All that said, there are still a few failure scenarios where we see nothing but a lot of cold air. I’m sure there wouldn’t be many complaints from farmers on that potential. I’ll update things on my Facebook page, Meteorologist Nick Mikulas, and will update here as needed.