Jimmy Sarris

ON THIS DATE IN 2014: “Snowmageddon” crippled much of North/Central Alabama for several days. It was only about 1 to 2 inches of snow, but temperatures were in the 17-22 degree range as the snow fell. After initially melting due to warm soil temperatures, we had a “flash freeze”, putting down a base of ice on all roads, making travel almost impossible. The 1-2 inches of snow basically produced travel conditions you would expect from a crippling ice storm (a long duration of freezing rain). Travel went from difficult to impossible, cars were left in the middle of highways as people changed from a “get home” mindset to a “survive” mindset. Thousands of kids were stranded in schools, countless adults spent the night in their office, some spent over 20 hours stuck in their vehicle on Interstate highways. Families were separated, and this developed into a full blown civil emergency; a humanitarian disaster. A Civil Emergency Message was issued by the NWS at the request of EMA at 11:27 a.m. And, the night before, while we forecast light snow, we expected "no major travel issues" in the Birmingham metro. A reminder we still have much to learn in impact forecasting. Where were you on January 28, 2014?