Snowstorms

Southeastern Snowstorm of 2011

January 9 to 13, 2011 · Category 2, Significant in the Southeast

This very rare storm brought significant snow to parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina before it turned up the coast and began impacting the Northeast. The storm really had two features associated with it, one in the south and one over the midwest. They eventually merged off the New England coast and developed into a powerful Nor'easter that brought heavy snow to New England. Cities in the south were ill prepared for the snow due to the rarity of the event. This caused the widespread closure of roads, schools, and buisnesses. The city of Atlanta only had eight plows working diligently to clear the cities streets but there was no way for them to keep up, making many city roads impassable for days. This powerful and rare storm was a Cat 2 in the Northeast, Southeast, and West North Central regions. It was a Cat 1 in the Ohio Valley, Upper Midwest, and Southern Regions.

What the offices filed during it

Winter weather episodes east of the Rockies from the day before the storm began to the day after it ended, colored by kind.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live map with snow on the ground

The storm by region

Each region’s thresholds are its own, so the same depth of snow counts for more in the South than in the Northeast.

RegionIndexCategoryArea with snow (sq mi)People under snowAbove the top threshold (sq mi)People above it
Southeast4.16Category 2, Significant178,16931,894,27500
Northern Rockies and Plains3.79Category 2, Significant307,4623,627,21300
Northeast3.38Category 2, Significant174,94058,907,58000
Ohio Valley2.78Category 1, Notable308,95249,251,88700
South2.70Category 1, Notable308,37520,902,07600
Upper Midwest1.65Category 1, Notable252,01223,896,50000

The Regional Snowfall Index is NOAA’s ranking of snowstorms east of the Rockies by how much snow fell, over how wide an area and on how many people, region by region: the area and the population above four snowfall thresholds set for each region, weighted against that region’s own history. A storm is scored in each region it reached, on a scale from 1, notable, to 5, extreme.

The toll the offices filed

Events
1,373
Deaths
18
Injuries
46
Damage
$7.1 million
Episodes
149

Every winter weather episode the Weather Service filed east of the Rockies in these dates. A few may belong to another system on the same days. Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Episode by episode

More

The snowstorm of December 29, 2010 to January 2, 2011The snowstorm of January 26 to 27, 2011Snow nowEvery winter storm filed

Sources

NOAA NCEI Regional Snowfall Index, and the Storm Events Database for the episodes.