Snow in all 50 states? New storm could make that true.

Three hundred plow trucks are lined up to combat an afternoon rush-hour snowstorm in Georgia, including traffic-congested Atlanta. In Mobile, Ala., kids are poised for a rare snowball fight. And fat flakes are already falling in Blountstown, Fla.

This has been one of the most bizarre winters of the new century, with storm after storm slamming the East Coast in particular. And now, a storm that dropped a foot of snow Thursday on Dallas – Dallas! – could help bring about the presence of snow in all 50 states.

That’s if the storm delivers a few inches, as expected, in parts of north Florida. If that indeed happens, meteorologists at AccuWeather and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say they expect some coverage in all 50 states.

(In case you’re wondering, some of the tallest peaks in Hawaii have snow sprinkled on them.)

“By the time the storm ends, we may be looking at a truly historic snow cover map to open up the weekend,” AccuWeather.com’s Joe Lundberg writes.

This winter’s white legacy has inspired at least one meteorological project.

"On Friday afternoon, I'm going to begin asking for photos of the snow," Patrick Marsh, a student employee at NOAA’s National Severe Storm Laboratory in Norman, Okla., told Oklahoma’s News 9 channel. "Hopefully I'll get photos from all 50 states, and if I do, I'll put them into a Google Earth map and make a snow snapshot of America."

(Wanna help Mr. Marsh? Send pics to snow@forwarn.org.)

So what’s going on?

Climate-change debate has been hot and heavy as official Washington shut down for four straight days. The wintry blasts, Time magazine explained, could actually be part of a global-warming trend. (We’ll let them explain that here.)

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