MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A huge swath of the U.S. from the Gulf Coast into New England was mired in extra-cold temperatures Sunday after a “bomb cyclone” brought heavy snow and hundreds of flight cancellations to North Carolina — and flurries and falling iguanas in Florida.
More misery was in store for thousands who are still without power from last weekend’s ice storm in the South.
About 150 million people were under cold weather advisories and extreme cold warnings in the eastern portion of the U.S., 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 with weather prediction center in College Park, Md.
The Tampa-St. Petersburg area in Florida saw snow flurries and temperatures in the 20s in the Panhandle and 30s in south Florida on Sunday morning, Mullinax said. That left cold-stunned iguanas falling from trees and lying prostrate and motionless on the ground. Iguanas in south Florida go dormant in the cold, and though they usually wake when temperatures warm, the reptiles can die after more than a day of extreme cold. The cold also left icicles on strawberries and oranges in the state.
Meanwhile, the bomb cyclone, which meteorologists associate with an intense, rapidly strengthening weather system, contributed to nearly a foot of snow in and around Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city. The snowfall represents one of the top five snow events ever recorded there, Mullinax said.
Flight cancellations exceeded 2,800 in the U.S. on Saturday, with 1,500 more Sunday, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking and data company. About 800 of those Sunday cancellations were for flights departing or arriving at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
The storm caused an hours-long mess on Interstate 85 northeast of the city, after a crash left dozens of semitrailers and other vehicles backed up into the evening, according to the State Highway Patrol. More than 1,000 traffic collisions and two road deaths were reported, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said Sunday.
“It’s an impressive cold shot, for sure, and there are daily records that are being seen down in the South,” Mullinax said.
Snow blanketed the neighborhood of Lee Harrison, an insurance agent in a town outside of Greenville, N.C., and he planned to take his three daughters sledding in the backyard.
“We’re not gonna drive anywhere,” Harrison said. “It’s thick enough that I would not feel comfortable driving with our family.”
More than 110 deaths have been reported so far. In Tennessee and Mississippi, two states struck last weekend by a storm carrying snow and ice, more than 97,000 customers were still without electricity Sunday, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us. An additional 29,000 didn’t have power Sunday in Florida.
Nashville Electric Service said it expects 90% of its customers to have power restored Tuesday, with 99% getting electricity back by next Sunday, two weeks after the ice and snow storm hit.
Gov. Bill Lee said he shared “strong concerns” with leadership of the utility, which has defended its response and said the storm was unprecedented.
Mississippi officials said it was the state’s worst winter storm since 1994. About 80 warming centers were opened and National Guard troops delivered supplies by truck and helicopter.
Mullinax said parts of the Carolinas are going to be “digging out” for several days as they contend with gusty winds and bitterly cold wind chills. Heading into Tuesday and Wednesday, light snow could fall in the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic, from Washington northward, possibly into New York City, he said.
Sainz writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Trân Nguyễn in Sacramento, Julie Walker in New York and others from around the country contributed to this report.
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