Environment

This Week's Snowstorm Made the South Look Like a Big Cotton Field

A NASA satellite acquired this remarkable image of the punishing storm's aftereffects.
NASA

Here's something you don't see every year: a huge portion of the South lit up with snowy whiteness like the world's most ambitious cotton-growing concern.

The remarkable shot was acquired on Wednesday by NASA's Terra satellite and released last evening for public admiration. The snow's vast extent reflects the vigorous thumping that January 28's winter storm delivered to the region. Measureoholics will want to know that the now-frothing-mad Atlantans received 2.6 inches of powder, whereas parts of Tennessee got 2 inches, Georgia and South Carolina 4 inches, and North Carolina up to 9 inches. Mixed in with the flakes was also a healthy dollop of freezing rain that covered roads and vehicles like a firehose of epoxy, like this unfortunate specimen in Florida.