Freezing temps stretch south to Florida

By by Ken Stanford

Posted 11:09AM on Monday 20th December 2004 ( 19 years ago )

UNDATED - Freezing temperatures hit northern Florida on Monday morning and snow made mountain highways treacherous in the Appalachians as the first big cold wave of the season swept southward, sending temperatures into the teens in Gainesville and elsewhere in Northeast Georgia. Even North Carolina's Outer Banks got a rare seaside dusting of snow, and more than 2 feet fell near the Great Lakes. The blast of Arctic air - one day before the official start of winter - drove temperatures in the Florida Panhandle down to 31 degrees at Crestview, 32 at Pensacola. The Florida citrus industry had no major worries because damage is seen only when readings stay at 28 or lower for at least four hours. But meteorologists warned that frost was possible Monday night and Tuesday morning even in central and southern Florida's fruit and vegetable growing regions. Greensboro, N.C., posted a record low for Dec. 20 at 9, and Crossville, Tenn., dropped to 6. Farther north, it was 18 below zero at 9 a.m. at Massena, N.Y., with a wind chill of 28 below, the National Weather Service said. In Georgia, early morning lows were reported as low as 12 degrees in Newnan. It got down to 15 degrees in Gainesville and it dipped to 16 degrees in Atlanta, according to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City. Monday's low in Gainesville was the coldest since January 24 2003 when a 10-degree reading was recorded. The record low for the date, also 10, was recorded December 20 1981. Atlanta came close to breaking a record for low temperature for Monday. Atlanta's record low for December 20 is nine degrees, set in 1981. In the northeast Georgia mountains, Blairsville reported 9 degrees at 7 a-m, and Brasstown Bald reported 6 degrees before daybreak. Homeless shelters were near capacity in Atlanta - where the temperature dropped to 16 - and were busy even in the suburbs where the homeless population is not as high. "When weather gets this bitterly cold, we see faces we rarely see," said Tyler Driver, executive director of The Extension, an emergency shelter for the homeless in Marietta, Ga. As much as 4 inches of snow coated mountain roads in West Virginia, where 21 school districts closed for the day and others opened late. "This last day of fall certainly doesn't feel like it," said Ken Batty, a meteorologist in Charleston, W.Va. Parts of New England also had blowing snow, and more than 130 schools closed or had delayed openings in New Hampshire. An autistic 9-year-old boy was missing in the woods near South Williamsport, Pa., where temperatures fell into the single digits during the night. Officials appealed to residents to search their property Monday for Logan Mitcheltree, who was last seen Saturday. "There's a possibility; there's always hope," Deputy Fire Chief John West said. Icy pavement was blamed for at least two traffic deaths in New Jersey. The icy wind sucked up moisture from the Great Lakes and dumped 26 inches of snow on Michigan City in northern Indiana. The city's schools were closed Monday. Bonnie and Jim Tilden got stranded Sunday near Rolling Prairie, Ind. "It was terrible on I-94. You couldn't see at all, and we didn't see any snowplows," Bonnie Tilden said. Blowing snow caused whiteout conditions in western Pennsylvania, and a tractor-trailer jackknifed across Interstate 80, setting off a chain-reaction pileup that wrecked up to 80 vehicles. "I could hear the cars piling into each other for a good 10 minutes," said state Trooper Ted Hunt, who was attending to disabled vehicles on the side of the highway when the collisions started Sunday. (The Associated Press contributed to this story.)

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/12/144917