A powerful winter weather system — including an intense low-pressure "bomb cyclone" along the East Coast — is affecting a large swath of the country and driving extremely cold air deep into the Southeast.
Temperatures in southern Florida fell into the 20s on Sunday morning — it's the coldest it's been since 1989, according to the National Weather Service. A statement on the agency's website warned of freezing temperatures and "bitterly cold air" surging down the Florida Peninsula.
"All of our climate sites set new record lows for the date this morning," read a social media statement from the NWS office in Melbourne, Fla., "and most even set new monthly record lows for February!"
Though not unusually cold for much of the country, Florida isn't well-equipped for such temperatures, said Brian McNoldy, who studies cyclones at the University of Miami. " It's just something that people aren't used to," he said, "I mean, not every house even has heat, a lot of people don't have heavy coats."
The cold did not keep some Floridians from their normal outdoor recreation, says David Nolan, who lives in Miami. "I went past the park today, there were people playing golf. There were people running, there were people bicycling," he said. "I think this is a case where people are still doing the things they would normally do — they're wearing a sweatshirt now."
Nolan — an atmospheric scientist at the University of Miami — observed that there used to be more frequent cold snaps in Florida. " There were some very, very cold winters in Miami in the early eighties," he said. "It's just warmer now."
On Friday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued an executive order allowing people to remove live, cold-stunned iguanas from the wild and turn them in at specific locations. Stunned iguanas falling from trees can cause hazards for pedestrians or motorists.
The bomb cyclone also led to snowfall in Charlotte, N.C. Some parts of the region saw a foot or more of snow over the weekend, more than what Charlotte typically accumulates in an entire season.
More than 840 flights were canceled and at least 195 were delayed as of Sunday afternoon at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
"Please heed our warnings. Shelter in place! Get off the roads!" read a social media post from Kannapolis Fire and Police, in the Charlotte area. The post described dozens of vehicles stuck on the interstate, impassable streets, and at least one section of the interstate closed. "Too many people think they can drive in this weather," it advised, "and they cannot."
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein on Sunday implored people to stay inside. "This is the kind of snowstorm that we don't get very often in North Carolina," he said during a news briefing. More than 1,000 traffic accidents were reported and two deaths, said Stein. The governor declared a state of emergency last week.
"Our key message today is to stay off the roads," he said, "that way you'll allow the road crews and law enforcement to focus on their essential tasks to keep us all safe."
The storm moves into the region after much of the northern and central East Coast experienced snow, ice and coastal flooding over the past week. The weather caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of thousands of power outages.
Tens of thousands of people have been without electricity for a week in Mississippi and Tennessee.
More than 50,000 customers were without power in Mississippi, while over 30,000 had no power in Tennessee as of Sunday afternoon. Twenty-three people have died as a result of the storm in Mississippi and 21 in Tennessee.
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