This past week, the state of Louisiana experienced extreme winter weather with freezing temperatures spanning Jan. 15 through the 17, with the temperatures warming up on the 17.
Governor Jeff Landry issued a state of emergency due to the severe weather conditions that were to impact the state of Louisiana between Sunday, Jan. 14 and Wednesday, Jan. 17. The governor encouraged people to prepare for the winter conditions. He also assured people that the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness was ready to supply any resources local emergency crews needed.
The freeze caused ice to form on power lines which caused several outages around Lafayette leaving several people without heat in the freezing temperatures. Slemco, an electric utility company, told KATC 3 that 6,000 of 10,000 Slemco customers were without power.
This freezing weather is coming from an arctic cold front. This freeze is actually related to climate change. Despite the world as a whole warming, weather is also becoming drastic and unpredictable which is why Louisiana is experiencing a freeze.
According to Nola.com, “warmer Arctic Circle temperatures causing unusual waviness in Jet Stream patterns, resulting in the rapid delivery of icebox conditions into south Louisiana.”
Barry Keim, an LSU climatology professor, told Nola.com, “Louisiana tends to be cooler and wetter in El Nino winters, which is caused by enhanced storm formation in the western Gulf and those storms tend to track over Louisiana.”
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette emailed students, faculty and staff on Jan. 16 stating that the campus would be open on Tuesday, Jan. 17. They encouraged students, faculty and staff to take caution when traveling to campus. UL Lafayette stated they had taken measures to make campus safe, but encouraged everyone to be cautious while on campus.
Later on Jan. 16, UL Lafayette emailed students, faculty and staff to inform them that the campus would be closed due to changing weather conditions. Classes and offices were closed, but most dining options operated as normal.
UL Lafayette students shared how they got through the freeze this past week.
Reagan Richey, a sophomore majoring in nursing, shared how she was affected by the drastic weather.
“Especially after the summer we had, I am definitely not acclimated to this cold. With power outages and pipes freezing, I am thankful we had a day off of school to adjust and get everything solved before having school again. I just hope that was the worst of it,” Richey said.
Connor Guidry, a sophomore nursing major, shared how he was concerned when UL Lafayette planned to remain open on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
“We didn’t have school when it froze so I wasn’t concerned, but when I got the email saying that they were originally going to be open I was very concerned. Especially when they said to drive with caution,” Guidry said.
Guidry continued, “We didn’t lose power or water, but my car did get frozen over which was a first, and driving in the sleet Tuesday night was definitely an experience.”