The arctic air mass that descended on Vernon Parish and everything to the south on Monday was certainly an odd weather pattern.  Shreveport and Longview got nothing; Natchitoches got a dusting of powder; while Lake Charles and New Orleans had more snow than we did locally.

Wide bands of snowy weather were driven by high winds (30mph) early Monday, that kept weather moving eastward into Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.  Accumulations for most of Vernon Parish were between 2-1/2 & 3-inches, making roads difficult to travel and shutting down education and most commerce.   To illustrate the “hit or miss” of the precipitation, Johnson Bayou in Cameron Parish recorded 7-inches and New Orleans had between 4-5 inches.

The Vernon Parish School System will be out again today.  All Northwestern State campuses are closed as well.  The Vernon Council on Aging remains closed today.  Most gates at Ft. Johnson are closed and only essential personnel are working.  There were no wide-spread power outages reported by providers in the parish.  Market Basket grocery store, which closed Tuesday, may reopen today with limited hours.  Vernon Police Jury offices will remain closed on Wednesday.  The Leesville Municipal Airport is closed.  The Leesville Golf Course will remain shut down until Friday. Leesville City Hall will be closed Wednesday.  They will re-open at 8 a.m. Thursday.  All Louisiana State offices will be closed through Friday of this week.

A freeze warning through 9 a.m. Wednesday was issued by the National Weather Service, with temperatures predicted as low as 12 degrees.  High temperatures today should reach 41 degrees, rising to near 50 Thursday with sunshine in the forecast.  The high Friday is predicted for the low 50’s.  The coming weekend brings temps reaching the mid 60’s Sunday with a 50% chance of rain.