Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Explosive Coastal Storm and Arctic Plunge Grip Eastern U.S., Snarling Travel, Knocking Out Power

The deep freeze forced NASA to postpone a fueling test that could delay next month’s crewed lunar flight.

Overview

  • The National Weather Service warned an explosively intensifying coastal low is delivering heavy snow, high winds and possible blizzard conditions across the Carolinas.
  • Snow totals reached about 37 cm in North Carolina, 32 cm in Virginia and more than 23 cm in Tennessee, while Davis, West Virginia, fell to −33°C as freezing temperatures extended into Florida.
  • Orlando dropped to −4°C on Sunday, the city’s lowest February reading in more than a century, as rare Southern cold accompanied the coastal snowfall.
  • Air travel was heavily disrupted with more than 1,800 flights canceled at Charlotte across Saturday and Sunday and over 600 cancellations at Atlanta on Saturday, with additional early Sunday scrubs.
  • Roughly 156,000 customers remained without electricity on Sunday in the South as officials opened shelters, deployed the National Guard in Mississippi and closed parts of North Carolina’s Outer Banks; North Carolina authorities logged about 750 crashes and the governor reported two fatalities.