Snow & Severe From One Storm

The storm system that brought rain and Pocono ice to us was a bit more unforgiving in other parts of the country. Our general half inch to inch of rain, few inches of slush and icy accumulations in the Poconos, pales to what went down in Amarillo, TX from this storm system.  Nineteen inches of snow fell in Amarillo, which is a daily record for the month of February and the third largest snowfall on record for them.   Winds gusted to hurricane force across the Southern Plains as this storm blew through, resulting in the picture seen below.

Photo showing stranded cars left behind in Amarillo after getting 19" of snow. Courtesy:  Amarillo National Bank.

That same storm system spawned severe weather across the Southeast, with a waterspout blowing on shore in Tampa yesterday morning.  That waterspout generated some minor damage as winds weren't overly robust with the twister (it was rated an EF-0 tornado once it got on land) but did generate a pretty epic photo.

Storm systems in the winter and early spring often produce both snow and severe, sometimes within a couple of hundred miles of each other if conditions are prime enough and atmospheric dynamics sufficient to support the strong push of warmth and severe out ahead of a cold dive of snow.  In this case, the differential was a good bit larger geographically and in time but it does show that nature is prone to producing multiple threats in the cold season in the South.