The first major cold spell of the season plunged parts of the southeastern U.S. into record-low temperatures Tuesday, delivering a shock for 18 million people under a freeze warning across Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Meanwhile, several inches of snow blanketed areas along the eastern Great Lakes as the blast of cold air moved through.
The direct shot of Arctic air affecting the eastern two-thirds of the country migrated east — and far southeast — from the Northern Plains, which was hit with gusty chills and snow over the weekend. For much of the Southeast on Tuesday, that meant an abrupt transition into wintry temperatures after reaching well into the 70s and 80s (21 to 27 Celsius).
Some daily records were “absolutely shattered,” said meteorologist Scott Kleebauer, including a low of 28 degrees Fahrenheit (-2 Celsius) at the airport in Jacksonville, Florida, on Tuesday morning. That broke the previous record low of 35 degrees set in 1977.
The southeastern U.S. will face a few more colder-than-normal days before warming up later in the week.
Florida faces a ‘falling iguana advisory’
Iguanas begin to “freeze” and fall from trees when temperatures dip to 40 degrees (4 Celsius) or below, according to Kleebauer, a forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center. Those temperatures were widespread upstate in Florida on Tuesday.
“Iguanas, because of their reptilian nature, they go into this kind of survival mode, and their system basically shuts down," he said. “They're not used to those types of temperatures. They only see those only a handful of times a year, if that.”
Posts of the stunned reptiles trickled in on social media as Floridians also faced unfamiliar weather.
“A lot of times you kind of sneak into fall and then you eventually get winter,” Kleebauer said. “This was more — it was warm there for a long time and then all of a sudden it’s a shock to the system with how cold the shot was.”
Visitors to Orlando’s theme parks might have thought they were back in the northern destinations they had left behind for a warm vacation in Florida, forcing them to bundle up as low temperatures neared freezing. As far south as Fort Lauderdale and Miami, early-morning temperatures dipped into the upper 40s. Even in the sunshine, the temperature wasn’t expected to reach 70 degrees (21 Celsius) on Tuesday.
Agriculture officials in Florida said they hadn’t heard of any problems due to the cold front, but they were holding their breaths until Wednesday morning following one more night of cold weather.
Across West Virginia, a predawn coating of snow and ice contributed to dozens of accidents Tuesday before the sun came out and road conditions improved.
More than 14 inches (37 centimeters) of snow on Monday and Tuesday enabled the White Grass Ski Touring Center in the northern mountain's Canaan Valley to open for cross-country skiing.
Lake effect piles on inches in the first significant snowfall
The cold air over the Great Lakes’ relatively warmer waters created ripe conditions for significant snowfall in some communities along the Great Lakes and downwind, farther inland in Pennsylvania and New York. The lake-effect snow was expected to add inches Tuesday, and forecasters said a separate storm system would bring additional snowfall Wednesday.
Barbara Butch is the village clerk and librarian for the town of Ubly in the center of eastern Michigan’s thumb region. The village was socked with snow Monday, getting nearly 8 inches by the time its more than 800 residents awoke on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
“It just kept coming down,” Butch said. “It just wouldn’t stop.”
Along with the snow came intense cold and strong winds, dropping the wind chill to well below freezing — weather not usually seen so early in the season. A chance of more snow was expected Tuesday afternoon in eastern Michigan, but temperatures are expected to rise into the 50s by the end of the week.
“We’ll end up with a sloppy, slushy mess,” Butch joked. “It’s just part of living where we live.”
Communities downwind of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in upstate New York woke up under a winter weather advisory Tuesday, with the National Weather Service predicting anywhere from 2 to 6 inches (5 to 15 centimeters) of snow in cities including Niagara Falls, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Jamestown. For many, they are the first few inches of snow in a season that typically delivers around 100 inches (2.5 meters) or more by spring.
The day’s highest totals, around 6 to 9 inches (15 to 23 centimeters), were expected across the traditionally snowy Tug Hill Plateau that sits between Lake Ontario and the Adirondack Mountains in western New York.
High, gusty winds and heavy snowfall caused dangerous driving conditions late Monday, including a snow squall warning along Interstate 80 in central Pennsylvania.
Farther northeast, parts of Vermont got up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of snow, making for a messy evening commute Monday. By Tuesday morning, a tractor trailer stuck on a hill temporarily forced the closure of one lane on Interstate 89, and drivers were warned to take extra care when it reopened due to accumulated snow.
Risk of flash flooding in California
On the West Coast, an atmospheric river taking aim at California was expected to bring heavy rains and mountain snow later this week. The long plume of tropical moisture that formed over the Pacific Ocean will begin drenching the San Francisco Bay Area starting Wednesday before quickly moving south. More than a foot of snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevada.
About 2 million Californians were at marginal risk of excessive rain on Wednesday but that advisory swells to include more than 21 million people by Thursday as the storm shifts south, Kleebauer said. The Thursday total includes the city of Los Angeles, but it's more likely that the surrounding terrain areas north and northwest of the city would be impacted.
Forecasters also warned that heavy rainfall isn’t well absorbed into soil burned by wildfires, so those communities, as well as low-lying areas, are vulnerable to runoff and are at risk of mudslides or flowing debris.
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Associated Press writers Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Mike Schneider in Orlando; Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.
