Winter Storm Cora Brings Southern Snow, Ice (RECAP)

W​inter Storm Cora quickly followed Blair as Blair's southern cousin. Cora brought widespread snow and ice to many southern states in early to mid-January before wrapping up as a lighter snowmaker for the Ohio Valley and Northeast.

(​MORE: Winter Storm Names 2024-2025)

H​ere is a sampling of storm reports from Cora:

• T​he heaviest storm total is 14.3 inches in Mena, Arkansas.
• Portions of the Atlanta and Birmingham metro areas picked up 1 to 6 inches of snow and sleet. Freezing rain developed in parts of the Atlanta area with some ice accumulations in trees up to one-quarter inch reported just west of the metro area.
• In Charlotte, North Carolina, residents saw their first measurable snowfall in more than 1,000 days, while Nashville, Tennessee broke a 130-year-old daily snow record.
• Anywhere from 7 to 11 inches of snow has fallen in the Little Rock area and the Memphis metro has measured from 4 to 8 inches of snowfall. Areas just west of Little Rock saw more than a foot of snow.
• Dallas-Fort Worth officially saw 2.6 inches, with heavier totals of 6 inches or more north of the Metroplex. It was their heaviest snowfall since Valentine's Day 2021.

C​ora initially was spawned as a piece of upper-level energy kicked east by a long upper trough in the western U.S. The resulting low pressure system spun up in the western Gulf of Mexico on January 8 before turning toward the Deep South.

Winter Storm Cora began to really ramp up in the southern Plains during the morning and afternoon hours of January 9. Moderate to heavy snow spanned from the Texas Panhandle into the Red River Valley, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Sleet and freezing rain fell for a time in Dallas and into parts of Central Texas.

U​p to 12 inches of snow fell in parts of the Texas Panhandle, far eastern New Mexico and into Oklahoma. Amarillo got up to 11 inches of snow, and that was enough to close portions of I-40 west of the city.

Schools canceled classes for more than 1 million students in Texas and Oklahoma, and closures also kept students home in Kansas City and Arkansas. Hundreds of flights were canceled in Dallas, according to tracking platform FlightAware, with more than 3,800 delays and 1,800 cancellations reported nationally. More than 500 collisions were reported in Oklahoma.

T​ractor trailers needed to be rescued by tow trucks in central Arkansas, which picked up as much as a foot of snow.

On Friday, January 10, snow pushed north and eastward into the Carolinas, Tennessee Valley and much of the Midwest during the afternoon hours. Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte each picked up substantial snowfall.

Atlanta's official observation station at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on the southern side of the metro picked up its heaviest snowfall since January 2018. Cora's 2.1 inches was relatively light compared to the 2-6 inches seen elsewhere in the metro area. The airport was forced to delay or cancel 1,100 flights from January 10-12. The Atlanta Hawks postponed a game due to the conditions. Hundreds of plows were deployed across Georgia in response to the snow, according to GDOT and 11alive.

Icy conditions triggered more than 100,000 power outages, with Texas and Georgia hit the hardest. Millions of children gained a rare snow day.

A mixture of sleet, freezing rain and plain rain pushed northward from the Interstate 20 corridor northward into the southern Appalachians after bringing a quick wintry mix as close to the coast as just north of Charleston, South Carolina.

T​he winter storm moved off the mid-Atlantic coast during the day on January 11 with generally only lighter snowfall for the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

F​ollowing winter storms Blair and Cora, parts of 49 out of 50 states have received snow at some point this season. Only Florida had not seen snow by mid-January.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.