Record-low temperatures shock U.S. Southeast

Some daily marks were ‘shattered,’ and the Northeast was blanketed by snow.

- By HANNAH FINGERHUT

PEOPLE bundle up against the chilly air as they watch the sunrise on the beach Tuesday in Miami Beach, Fla.

(JOE RAEDLE Getty Images)

The first major cold spell of the season plunged parts ofthe southeastern U.S. into record-low temperatures Tuesday, delivering a shock for 18 million people under a freeze warning across Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

Meanwhile, several inches of snow blanketed areas along the eastern Great Lakes as the blast of cold air moved through.

The direct shot of Arctic air affecting the eastern two-thirds of the country migrated east — and far southeast — from the Northern Plains, which was hit with gusty chills and snow over the weekend. For much of the Southeast on Tuesday, that meant an abrupt transition into wintry temperatures after reaching well into the 70s and 80s in recent days.

Some daily records were “absolutely shattered,” said meteorologist Scott Kleebauer, including a low of 28 degrees at the airport in Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday morning. That broke the previous record low of 35 degrees set in 1977.

The southeastern U.S. will face a few more colder-than-normal days before warming up later in the week.

‘Falling iguana advisory’ in Florida

Iguanas begin to “freeze” and fall from trees when temperatures dip to 40 degrees or below, according to Kleebauer, a forecaster with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center. Those temperatures were widespread upstate in Florida on Tuesday.

“Iguanas, because of their reptilian nature, they go into this kind of survival mode, and their system basically shuts down,” he said.

“They’re not used to those types of temperatures. They only see those only a handful of times a year, if that.”