Photos courtesy of AP and EPA
A rare blast of snow, sleet and ice recently hit the US South, prompting three states to declare a state of emergency, closing the New Orleans airport and causing chaos on roads.
Read the following story from the Bangkok Post to learn more about these unusually cold conditions.
The southern cold snap is part of an arctic front that has put much of the Northeast and Northern Plains under warnings and advisories for severe wind chills. Temperatures in parts of those regions could get as cold as -34 degrees Celsius, the National Weather Service announced on January 28.
ICY CONDITIONS
Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina each declared a state of emergency, telling motorists to stay off the roads.
“Residents should make plans to ensure that they are prepared for prolonged freezing conditions and icy roadways,” Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant said.
RARE WEATHER
Temperatures were forecast to hit a low of -5 degrees Celsius in New Orleans on the night of January 28.
The last flight left New Orleans at about 11 am local time on January 28 and its Louis Armstrong International Airport was then closed to commercial traffic ahead of the predicted ice storm. Authorities also shut the 39-kilometre Causeway Bridge, which spans Lake Pontchartrain, because of icy conditions.
Residents and tourists excited by the novelty of the conditions took photos of icicles hanging from wrought-iron balconies in the city’s historic French Quarter.
“This is pretty rare in New Orleans,” Mike Efferson of the National Weather Service Office in Slidell, Louisiana, said of the conditions. “This only happens about every 10 years.”
SNOW EXPECTED
Schools and government offices across many parts of the country were closed. Airlines cancelled or delayed thousands of flights, and officials closed many roads as conditions worsened. North Carolina and South Carolina were expected to get the most snow, according to local weather services.
Exercises
Read the story. Then, decide whether the following statements are true or false.
1. The Louis Armstrong International Airport is located in New Orleans.
………………………………………………..
2. Phil Bryant is Louisiana Governor.
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3. Freezing weather hits New Orleans about once every decade.
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4. Louisiana and Mississippi were expected to get the most snow.
………………………………………………..
Vocabulary
- sleet (n): a mixture of rain and snow
chaos (n): a state of complete confusion and disorder
front (n): the line where a mass of cold air meets a mass of warm air
plains (n): a large area of flat land
advisory (n): an official warning that something bad is going to happen
prolonged (adj): continuing for a long time
novelty (n): the quality of being new, different and interesting
