Generational event as snow piles up in coastal Alabama

Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live from Alabama during a once-in-a-lifetime snow event on Jan. 21.

Transcript

00:00our coverage continues tonight with storm chaser Aaron Rigsby he joins us

00:04live from Mobile Alabama with an update and Aaron we have had a tremendous storm

00:10just amazing I've never seen palm trees in snow except for that one travel stop

00:14out there in western Kansas but it's a gimmick it's a fake tree this is legit

00:18this is a real deal right now yeah there's no gimmick about that one guys I

00:24mean I still have to remind myself that I'm about a 20-minute drive from the

00:29ocean it's it's just surreal to see not only this much snow accumulate but how

00:33fast it has been coming down there's been the times where it's been coming

00:36down about an inch or two an hour and I will tell you though the roadways have

00:41been relatively clear as far as traffic goes they don't have quite the amount of

00:45snow plows that a lot of the folks up north do but I feel like a lot of the

00:49folks have really heated those warnings because this was a very well advertised

00:52event and and honestly we've been seeing the higher end of the toll is really

00:57through across the whole warned area so you know that that forecast is really

01:01verified and I'm glad to see that a lot of people are taking that warning

01:03seriously and I will say there was a pretty ominous emergency message that

01:07went out earlier that here in Mobile for folks to just assume that all roadways

01:11and bridges are impassable and to essentially shelter in place to tell you

01:16the kind of severity that and the strong wording that has been going on in regards

01:20to this winter storm and Aaron it sounds like people are you know taking those

01:24warnings seriously and hunkering down but I know you've been in a couple areas

01:28across the southeast over the last day or two what's your sense of how people

01:32really prepared for this yeah absolutely you know like we've seen with the last

01:38two events there has been a lot of instances of a lot of the shelves

01:41cleared of non-perishable food we saw a lot of bread flying off of the shelves a

01:45lot of canned food flying off of the shelves and a lot of those space heaters

01:49have been just flying off of the shelves so I think that folks you know not only

01:53are necessarily preparing for the winter storm that's rolling through here but

01:57that big surge of Arctic air that's gonna come in from behind this so that's

02:01something that we'll have to watch closely as well even long after the snow

02:04has passed Aaron have you seen anybody out or are people just kind of out

02:08having fun but traveling by foot to the backyard and then coming back inside you

02:15know I gotta tell you guys I've actually been pleasantly surprised in the lack of

02:18stuck cars and accidents I've seen I've come across a couple of them but nothing

02:22what I would typically expect for this kind of event now I will say there have

02:26been a lot there's been a lot more foot traffic than a lot of wheel traffic that

02:29I've seen and it's honestly been kind of a spectacle because you know we've been

02:32talking about those records breaking for some folks this is probably gonna be the

02:36only time they see snow accumulation in this area in their lifetime this is

02:39truly a generational event that's great stuff well Aaron we appreciate your

02:44reporting put on a lot of miles over the past four or five six months but this

02:48one probably one of the more extreme but probably more enjoyable events at

02:54this point