Southeast Reels After Big Snowy Nor'easter, Extreme Florida Freeze

The scene in New Bern, on the North Carolina coast this
morning. Photo from Storm Chaser Stephen Jones/Facebook

The second weird, extreme southern winter storm in a week is heading out to sea this afternoon, leaving some pretty incredibly winter scenes in the Carolinas. Meanwhile Florida is shivering in record cold.  
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The Southeastern United States is having a classic New England winter day, with deep snow on the ground, sunshine overhead with the storm headed away cold gusty northwest winds and temperatures in the 20s,  In Florida, morning lows were in the 20s. 

This is the second year in a row that an extreme snowstorm and record shattering cold hit the far south of the Lower 48. 

In January, 2025, an unprecedented snowstorm brought near blizzard conditions from New Orleans to Pensacola.   Florida set its all time record deepest snowstorm with 8.8 inches. Temperatures fell to all time lows of just 3 above not far from the coast in southwest Louisiana. 

This weekend's storm wasn't quite as extreme as last year's in the south. But it was close. 

SNOWY CAROLINAS

Visible satellite shows snow covering all of North 
Carolina and much of South Carolina today.
Those streaky clouds around Florida are caused
by frigid air flowing over warm water. It's the
same as lake effect snow clouds in the Great Lakes.
Flurries were seen as far south as Sarasota, Florida.

In North Carolina, 17.7 inches of snow fell in Longwood, which is near the coast. A foot of snow fell on Lake View, South Carolina, which is a a little north of and slightly inland from Myrtle Beach. 

In the Carolinas, the only two snowstorms that in memory that were bigger than this weekend's were  one that hit in December, 1989 and another in March, 1980. 

As skies cleared Sunday, satellite photos showed the rarity of snow covering all of North Carolina much of South Carolina and parts of eastern Georgia. 

Snow fell as far west as Atlanta, Georgia and the eastern half of Tennessee.

The storm caused a pileup involving up to 100 cars along Interstate 85 in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Traffic was snarled across the state as people who did venture out quickly got stuck. 

On the Outer Banks of North Carolina, one house fell into the ocean during the storm in Buxton. That's the 17th house to fall into the eroding shores in Buxton and Rodanthe, North Carolina since this past September. 

Video showed full blizzard conditions in Nags Head, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina last night. 

To add to the Outer Banks weather chaos, a large fire broke out at an unoccupied home in Nags Head. At last report the fire was largely contained. 

On the bright side, recovery from the storm in North Carolina will be easier than it was in places like Mississippi and Tennessee last week, which were hit by an extreme ice storm. The ice was followed bye days of subfreezing temperatures that did little to melt the mess. 

In the eastern Carolinas, temperatures should go a little above freezing tomorrow, and then highs for the rest of the week will be in the 40s to around 50. Not exactly warm for them, but it should help anyone trying to drive anywhere. 

FLORIDA

Snow flurries were seen as far as Sarasota, and St. Petersburg, Florida. Other flurries were seen in and around Jacksonville. 

The main story was the cold. In Orlando at 7 a.m, it was 25 degrees with a wind chill of 13. Miami was down to a record low for the date of 35 degrees with a wind chill of 26.  

The Florida freeze is part of a weather pattern that has brought oddly mild air to parts of the Arctic while shoving cold air far southward to where is almost never goes. Wind trajectory maps show the air made a straight shot from the North Pole to Miami.

Here's a great demonstration of how warm (for the Arctic) high pressure is making parts of the far northern part of the world warm, while frigid weather blasts places much further south. 

Orlando, Florida suffered through a record low temperature of 24 degrees this morning. Jacksonville, Florida hit 23 degrees and Tallahassee reached 21. Meanwhile, this morning's low in Nuuk, Greenland was 26.

 Orlando's records go back as far as 1892.

Other cities whose records don't go back as far as Orlando's set records for coldest for the entire month of February. Those include Daytona Beach, with 23 degrees, which broke the old February record of 24 degrees. Melbourne got to 25, breaking the mark for the entire month of February, which was 27. Vero Beach reached 26 degrees, breaking the old record low for the month of February, which had been 28 degrees.  

Florida homes are built to keep the hot air out, not the cold air. I'm sure there's going to be lots of trouble with frozen pipes, and people shivering in homes with inside temperatures in the 50s, 40s or worse. 

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson has already sent a request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeking a disaster declaration for what will surely be crop damage from the deep freeze.

You'll probably see higher produce prices at the grocery store due to the Florida freeze. The state sends crops like avocados, bell peppers, broccoli, celery, corn, cucumbers, radishes, strawberries, cabbage and citrus products to much of the nation during the winter.

Farmers have been trying to spray farm fields to cover everything with a light coating of ice. The ice actually protects plants from the frigid temperatures. Other farm fields were hidden from the cold by massive row covers. 

However, at one farm, the sprinklers malfunctioned in a field of blueberry bushes, crushing many of the plants under six inches or more of ice. 

Another hard freeze is due tonight across Florida. After that, things should get a little better. The upcoming week will be cooler than average, but far from record-breaking cold.