Winter storm, freezing cold grounds 2,100 flights, threatens citrus crops

By Brian K Sullivan

 

A winter storm is dropping snow across the US South, where more than 2,100 flights have been canceled, as the eastern US faces a continued deep freeze, threatening records all the way to south Florida and menacing citrus crops. 

Winter storm warnings cover parts of southern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, the Carolinas and northeastern Georgia as the storm builds along the southern Atlantic coast, threatening to bring 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters) of snow across a wide area, said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. The region will also be swept by winds gusting as high as 45 miles (72 kilometers) per hour in some places. 

 

“The storm is just getting its act together,” Oravec said. “Later tonight, around midnight, the winds should really be howling on the coast and there could be some blizzard conditions on the Outer Banks” of North Carolina. 

 

The storm means a second weekend of flight delays and cancellations, but shouldn’t be as severe as the previous round, when more than 10,000 trips were scrubbed across the country.

 

More than 194,000 homes and businesses, mainly in Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi, were without power early Saturday, according to PowerOutage.com. In addition to the snow, much of the eastern US is gripped by severe cold, with 186 daily records possibly set to be tied or broken. Temperatures have lingered 20F to 25F (11 degrees Celsius to 14 degrees Celsius) below average for more than a week, the Weather Prediction Center said.

 

Freeze and extreme cold warnings, as well as advisories stretch from southern Texas to Massachusetts, the National Weather Service said. 

 

“The worst days for the cold are today and tomorrow,” Oravec said. 

 

Flight cancellations reached 2,122 into and around the US by 2 pm New York time on Saturday, with Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago and Raleigh-Durham airports the hardest hit, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking company.

 

The cold also threatens citrus growers, with most of Polk County in central Florida, the state’s biggest producing region, in the zone expected to face below-freezing temperatures. That county in the prior season produced nearly 30 per cent of Florida’s total orange output in terms of boxes, according to the US Department of Agriculture. 

 

The storm is expected to pull into the Atlantic, possibly just grazing the eastern tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts with about 3 inches of snow, but sparing most of the Northeast.

 

The cold will continue, however. Temperatures will moderate next week but stay below normal, Oravec said. And computer forecast models point to more winter storms across the East in the coming weeks. 

 

“The one ingredient you need if you want a big winter storm is cold air, and it looks like the cold air will continue into the middle of February,” Oravec said.