Now, southern US braces for bitter cold

annapolis: The next round of bitter cold was set to envelop the southern US on Tuesday, after the first significant winter storm of the year blasted a huge swath of the country with ice, snow and wind.

The immense storm system brought disruption even to areas of the country that usually escape winter’s wrath, downing trees in some Southern states, threatening a freeze in Florida and causing people in Dallas to dig deep into their wardrobes for hats and gloves.

On Tuesday morning, the wind chill temperature was 16 (minus 9 degrees C) at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, according to the National Weather Service.

A low-pressure system was expected to form as soon as Wednesday near south Texas, bringing the potential of snow to parts of the state that include Dallas, as well as to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

“As we go through the next few days, we’re still going to be seeing those colder-than-normal temperatures,” said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the weather service in College Park, Maryland. “We’re going to see areas of snow and ice start to take shape across northern Texas, southern Oklahoma as we get into Thursday morning.”

Snow and ice are expected to make their way farther south into the lower Mississippi Valley, some of it “pretty disruptive,” he said.

Lingering snow and ice in the central Plains through the Ohio Valley into the Atlantic is likely to stick around for a few days, Mullinax said.