Frigid temperatures grip the Southeast after record snowfall
As residents of the Southeast dug out on Sunday from a severe winter storm that dumped over a foot of snow on parts of North Carolina, they will also battle dangerously cold temperatures.
Sunday morning wind chills made it feel like 20 degrees in Houston, 19 in New Orleans, minus-1 in Atlanta, 9 in Nashville, 2 in Chicago and 1 in Washington, D.C.
The extreme cold in the Southeast follows a snowy weekend. In North Carolina, the town of Kannapolis received more than 14 inches. Large cities in North Carolina, including Charlotte, Greenville and Gastonia, all received 11 inches of snow or more from the weekend storm. For Charlotte, this tied for the 4th biggest single-day snow in their recorded history.
Other places in the South also recorded snow over the weekend, including Columbia, South Carolina, which received 4 inches; Augusta, Georgia, which recorded 3.5 inches; and Virginia Beach, Virginia, which received 2 inches.
At a news conference Sunday morning, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said roads remained hazardous, and that more than a thousand traffic collisions had occurred in the state due to the severe winter weather. He said two people died in traffic accidents, adding to the weather-related death toll of more than 100 across the Southeast and Northeast since last week.
The Northeast is still feeling the cold, too. While the number of cities under Cold Weather Advisories has lessened, several places like Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, are still expecting wind chills below zero into Monday morning.
New York City woke up to a wind chill early Sunday morning that made it feel like four below.
Wind gusts of 20 to 30 mph along the East Coast will make things feel about 5 to 10 degrees colder on Sunday.
Houston and Lafayette, Louisiana, are under a Freeze Warning as temperatures could potentially drop as low as 19 degrees.
Down in Florida, some of the coldest temperatures in more than 10 years are being felt. In Vero Beach and Melbourne, the temperature on Sunday morning plummeted to 27 degrees and 26 degrees, respectively, breaking the monthly records for the coldest low temperature in February.
With the wind-chill factor, the temperature felt around 10 degrees across most of Florida. Even Miami is expected to have a feel-like temperature of around 30 degrees on Sunday.
Heading into the new workweek, temperatures will finally nudge above freezing for most in the Northeast, but slightly warmer than the last few days. Winds are forecast to be calmer.
