More than a week of storms and bitterly cold temperatures left a blanket of snow across much of the eastern United States. The winter weather was brought on by fronts of Arctic air that swept across the country in mid-January.
Starting on January 13, a cold front brought sub-zero wind chills to over 100 million Americans. The system dropped several inches of snow in parts of Mississippi and Tennessee and buried cities downwind of the Great Lakes in multiple feet of lake-effect snow.
Over the next two days, parts of Tennessee saw accumulations of 5 to 8 inches (13 to 20 centimeters). More than 6 inches fell on Nashville on January 15, breaking the city’s record for that date and exceeding its average annual snowfall of about 5 inches. Icy, snowy roads created hazardous driving conditions in the state, which led to a high number of fatalities, according to news reports.
Another blast of cold air plunged south from Canada and moved through the eastern U.S. on January 19 and 20, piling on more wintery precipitation. The skies cleared on January 21, 2024, when the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image. The band of snow stretched from Mississippi to Maine.
According to the National Weather Service, 2 to 5 inches of snow remained on the ground near Baltimore, Maryland, on January 21. The snowfall in Washington, D.C., and New York City ended their two-year streaks without measurable accumulation. Around 2 feet of snow persisted on parts of the Allegheny Mountains.
According to the Weather Channel, snow has fallen in all 50 states as of January 17. They reported that the recent Arctic blast brought flurries to Milton, in Florida’s panhandle, and a previous storm left a dusting of snow at high elevations in Hawaii.
References & Resources
- ABC News (2024, January 16) NYC, DC break more than 700-day snow droughts with biggest storm in 2 years. Accessed January 23, 2024.
- Clarion Ledger (2024, January 16) How much snow fell in Mississippi on MLK day? See which city matched temperature records. Accessed January 23, 2024.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2024, January 18) Arctic Chill Sweeps U.S. Accessed January 23, 2024.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2023, December 7) A Dusting of Snow on Hawaii’s Tallest Peaks. Accessed January 23, 2024.
- National Weather Service, Weather Prediction Center (2024, January 12) Here are the latest Key Messages for the ongoing Arctic Blast. Accessed January 23, 2024.
- National Weather Service, Baltimore-Washington, via X (2024, January 21) Sunny skies have yielded another good look at the current snowpack! Accessed January 23, 2024.
- National Weather Service, Nashville, via X (2024, January 16) Correction: Nashville’s official snowfall accumulation was 7.6" (not 7.8"). Accessed January 23, 2024.
- The New York Times (2024, January 21) At Least 72 Deaths in U.S. Are Connected to Severe Winter Weather. Accessed January 23, 2024.
- NOAA Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWCIMSS), via X (2024, January 21) GOESEast captured this classic winter scene of the Northeast U.S. Accessed January 23, 2024.
- The Weather Channel (2024, January 17) Snowflakes Have Been Observed In All 50 States This Season. Accessed January 23, 2024.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview . Story by Emily Cassidy .
