To paraphrase a line from James Carville (it's the economy, stupid), if you're wondering why we are so cold and have stayed so cold, blame it on recent nearby snow cover from the ice storm 8 days ago. In December and early January, the South had no snow cover and the Arctic airmasses were allowed to modify before reaching us. But look at these snow cover maps now. The recent East Coast snow storm dumped 1-2 feet on the Carolinas. It's the snow cover to our north that lingers that's more important for us.
Sunday, February 1, 2026
It's The Snow Cover Stupid, One More Freezing Night
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Sunday Morning Coldest, Full Precautions Needed, Warm up Next Week
As my podcast described in detail yesterday, our lows this morning barely dipped to below freezing on the South Shore, and the duration was brief (2-3 hours). My subscribers were in the know and easily saved the $2/month charge for viewing my podcast by not running their water. No need to wait until hurricanes come. Sign up at bobbreck.com, as Winter is far from over. Our "Pipe Rule" served us well, and there was no need to drip/run your water south of Lake P. North Shore was a different story as lows were in the mid 20s. Tonight will be colder, and BOTH sides of the Lake will need to drip the inside faucets, but NOT until after dark. Let's go over the details and review.
Our local NWS office is predicting 26 at MSY on Sunday & 34 for Monday morning. My suggestion is for those of you north & west of Lake Pontchartrain is start dripping water after dark/6-7 pm. For us, south of the Lake, start dripping before you go to bed (10-11 PM). My thinking is the center of the Arctic high will not be over us so the winds are likely to stay up, producing some lake effect on the South Shore. My gut is saying 27-31 at MSY. That's too close for comfort, so I will start dripping before I go to sleep. The wind direction will shift from the NNW to NNE overnight.
Computer models have again nailed this Arctic Blast as the upper low is moving over Georgia/SC.
The source region of cold air in Canada is not nearly as cold as several weeks ago, yet the Polar Vortex is driving the chill through the Gulf into the Yucatan & Cuba. My friend Tom in Tampa reminds me it's Gasparilla parade weekend. Burrr! for parade watchers.























