AccuWeather correspondent Leslie Hudson reported live from Houston, Texas, on Jan. 20 as the city prepared for potentially record-setting snow.
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00:00to get ready for this event.
00:01You know, there has been
00:02ongoing meetings with city
00:02officials, the mayor, even the
00:05governor, of course, been
00:07involved, trying to mobilize
00:08this area as best as they can,
00:09because, as you know, Houston
00:11not an area typically. That
00:13gets this kind of attention.
00:15So I think it's important to
00:17keep the roads open. Leslie, I
00:17don't know if there's anything
00:18Houston can do to really
00:19prepare for this to keep the
00:21roads open in any form. Well, I
00:24know that that they've done
00:25everything that they can jump
00:27to try and get ready for this
00:28event. You know, there has been
00:29a lot of snow this year.
00:31There's been a lot of snow
00:32this year, and it's been a
00:33little bit of winter weather.
00:36In fact. If the forecast holds
00:37like a few weather is saying
00:39this will be one of the highest
00:42record snow totals for the
00:44Houston area ever. The only
00:46other one was in the 18
00:48hundreds where they got 20
00:50inches of snow. So thankfully
00:51we're not expecting that. But
00:53you know, there's two stories
00:53here. There's the snow. That's
00:56very rare for the Houston area.
00:58Again under winter storm
00:59conditions, so that's why it's
01:01so important for us to be
01:02prepared for this. The other
01:04one story is this incredibly
01:04cold air, so it's very cold
01:08here now. It is definitely
01:10dropped since we got here. We
01:11got here just a couple of hours
01:13ago, and of course, they're
01:14forecasting incredibly low
01:16temperatures tonight, and then
01:18really it's when we get that
01:19things ramp up tomorrow with
01:21this potential winter mix of
01:22the freezing rain, potentially
01:22some sleep and, of course, that
01:26snow. If they get over four
01:27inches of snow here in the
01:29area, it's going to be a
01:30pretty big snowstorm. We're
01:30going to have a lot of
01:31snow. We're going to have a
01:32lot of snow. We're going to
01:33have a lot of snow. We're
01:33going to have a lot of snow
01:34averages here. I've been
01:35talking about anywhere from
01:37four to 4.5 inches of snow is
01:38what they're estimating. Some
01:40of those totals have been as
01:42high as eight, but that will,
01:43of course, break that record
01:45that they've had for the
01:47second highest snow total. So
01:48a lot of folks we talked to
01:49some people at the airport. A
01:51lot of folks are going to the
01:52stores. We were at target
01:54earlier today. It was busy
01:55folks getting their supplies
01:57trying to get a hunker down
01:59here in the Houston area.
02:00They're trying to get their
02:01supplies here in the Houston
02:03area, Michigan, and they said
02:05their roads are used to this
02:06kind of weather. You know,
02:07they use salt on the highway
02:08so folks can drive, but that
02:11is not a common. Factor here
02:13in the Houston area, and this
02:15entire area expected to pretty
02:17much be shut down. Schools
02:18will be closed tomorrow.
02:19Airports both the big
02:20airports here are expected to
02:22be closed tomorrow in
02:24preparation of the snow event.
02:25And then, of course, it will
02:26turn into that secondary piece
02:28of snow that we're going to
02:29see here in the next couple of
02:30days. So there's a lot of
02:32concern that they are trying to
02:33navigate. And, of course,
02:35there is a large homeless
02:36population here. They're
02:37concerned with. They've opened
02:38up shelters all across the
02:41Houston area. Dozen or so. They
02:42are also concerned about the
02:44homeless pet population here.
02:45They've been trying to urge
02:47people to take in some of the
02:49shelter animals into their
02:51homes temporarily because not
02:52all of them have heating
02:54sources, so lots to uncover
02:55here in the coming days will,
02:56of course, keep you updated.
02:57Back to you, Heather.
02:58Thank you for that update.