Bomb cyclone brings freezing temperatures and snow to millions in US | US weather

A bomb cyclone produced freezing temperatures across much of the United States from the Gulf Coast to New England, bringing heavy snow to North Carolina, where two people were killed in storm-related conditions, and setting records in Florida, where authorities warned of ice and falling iguanas.

About 150 million people were under cold weather advisories and extreme cold warnings in the eastern part of the United States, with wind chills near zero to single digits in the South and the coldest air mass seen in South Florida since December 1989, said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Meanwhile, the bomb cyclone, known to meteorologists as an intense and rapidly strengthening weather system, contributed to nearly a foot of snow falling in and around Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city. The snowfall represented one of the five largest snow events ever there, Mullinax said.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said more than 1,000 crashes on snow-covered roads left two people dead statewide over the weekend. He gave no details about the victims.

Flight cancellations topped 2,800 in the United States on Saturday, and another 1,800 on Sunday, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking and data company. More than 800 of those cancellations Sunday were for flights departing from or arriving at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

The frigid weather brought temperatures as low as 20° F to the Florida Panhandle and 30° to South Florida, Mullinax said. Snow showers were seen in Tampa and low temperature records were broken in Daytona Beach (23F), Melbourne (25F) and Vero Beach (26F). Miami experienced its coldest morning since 2010 at 35F (2C).

The cold weather caused iguanas to fall from trees and prompted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to issue an executive order asking the public to bring any iguanas found Sunday or Monday to the agency.

The conservation commission on Friday established special regulations that temporarily allow residents to remove cold-stunned green iguanas from the wild without a permit, as temperatures plummeted over the weekend.

“Green iguanas are an invasive species in Florida and have negative impacts on the state’s environment and economy,” the commission said in a statement.

In November, residents were warned of the serious risk of iguanas, paralyzed by the cold, falling from trees as temperatures began to drop. The executive order issued Friday authorizes the removal of “cold-stunned iguanas from properties where they have permission from the landowner to conduct these activities and, from any property managed by a commission.”

The executive order temporarily waives the requirement for a hunting license, management zone permit, or other commission permits to collect and transport live iguanas. Residents have until Monday, February 2 at 4 p.m. to transfer live and cold-stunned iguanas to different drop-off locations in Florida.

According to the FWC, sustained temperatures near freezing can send reptiles and amphibians, including non-native green iguanas, into torpor – a temporary state that causes them to lose muscular control.

The cold also left ice on the state’s strawberries and oranges. Florida farmers sometimes spray water on fruit trees and berry plants to protect them from the cold.

In Florida, temperatures began to drop over the weekend to levels not seen since 2010, 1989, 1977 and 1966, according to AccuWeather. A bomb cyclone that hit the country’s southeast brought low temperatures, knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses and led to hundreds of flight cancellations on Sunday.

Farther north, in parts of North Carolina, snowfall totals exceeded 12 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

More than 110 deaths linked to winter weather and storms have been reported in the United States since the end of January. In Mississippi and Tennessee, two states hit last weekend by a storm carrying snow and ice, more than 87,000 customers were still without power Sunday, according to the outage tracking site poweroutage.us. Another 8,000 people were without power Sunday in Florida.