Bomb cyclone brings bitter cold and snow to the Southeast : NPR
Snow falls Saturday at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina
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A powerful winter weather system – including an intense low-pressure “bomb cyclone” along the East Coast – is affecting much of the country and driving extremely cold air deep into the Southeast.
Temperatures in South Florida fell into the 20s Sunday morning — it’s the coldest since 1989, according to the National Weather Service. A statement posted on the agency’s website warned of freezing temperatures and “icy air” sweeping across the Florida peninsula.
“All of our climate sites set new records for this date this morning,” read a statement on social media from the NWS office in Melbourne, Florida, “and most even set new monthly records for February!”
Although not unusually cold for much of the country, Florida is not well equipped for such temperatures, said Brian McNoldy, who studies hurricanes at the University of Miami. “It’s just something people aren’t used to,” he said. “I mean, not all the houses even have heat, a lot of people don’t have big coats.”
The cold hasn’t stopped some Floridians from enjoying their usual outdoor recreation, said David Nolan, who lives in Miami. “I walked past the park today, there were people playing golf. There were people running, there were people riding bikes,” he said. “I think it’s a case where people are still doing the things they normally would do: they’re wearing a sweatshirt now.”
Nolan – an atmospheric scientist at the University of Miami – observed that there were more frequent cold spells in Florida. “There were some very, very cold winters in Miami in the early ’80s,” he said. “It’s just warmer now.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued an executive order Friday allowing people to remove live, cold-stunned iguanas from the wild and return them to specific locations. Stunned iguanas falling from trees can pose dangers to pedestrians or motorists.
A cold-stunned green iguana lies on the ground Sunday in Miami Beach, Florida. The cold-blooded creatures fall from trees when temperatures get too low.
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The bomb cyclone also brought snowfall to Charlotte, North Carolina. Parts of the region saw a foot or more of snow over the weekend, more than Charlotte typically accumulates in an entire season.
More than 840 flights were canceled and at least 195 were delayed Sunday afternoon at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
“Please heed our warnings. Shelter in place! Get off the roads!” » Read a social media post from the Kannapolis Fire and Police Department in the Charlotte area. The post described dozens of vehicles stuck on the highway, impassable streets and at least one section of the highway closed. “Too many people think they can drive in this weather,” he advises, “and they can’t.”
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein implored people to stay indoors on Sunday. “This is the kind of snowstorm we don’t get very often in North Carolina,” he said during a press briefing. More than 1,000 traffic accidents were reported and two deaths, Stein said. The governor declared a state of emergency last week.
“Our key message today is to stay off the roads,” he said, “that way you will allow road crews and law enforcement to focus on their essential tasks to keep us all safe.”
The storm is moving through the region after much of the northern and central East Coast experienced snow, ice and coastal flooding over the past week. The bad weather caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of thousands of power outages.
Tens of thousands of people have been without power for a week in Mississippi and Tennessee.
More than 50,000 customers were without power in Mississippi, while more than 30,000 were without power in Tennessee as of Sunday afternoon. Twenty-three people died as a result of the storm in Mississippi and 21 in Tennessee.
