At least two people were killed during a powerful weekend snowstorm that brought record-breaking snowfall to North Carolina and unusually cold temperatures to Florida. The storm created hazardous travel conditions across much of the Southeast, triggering widespread disruptions and emergency responses.
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein said the state recorded more than 1,000 traffic collisions over the weekend, resulting in two deaths. Stein did not release details about the victims. State officials repeatedly urged residents to avoid traveling unless absolutely necessary as road conditions deteriorated rapidly.
“Please be patient and please stay off the roads unless it’s absolutely necessary,” said North Carolina Transportation Secretary Daniel Johnson. “If you do have to drive, slow down and give other cars, our teams and other first responders lots of distance.”
Residents across North Carolina woke up Sunday to historic snowfall totals, with some communities reporting more than 20 inches of accumulation. Snowfall measurements included 22.5 inches in Faust, 16 inches in Lexington, 12 inches in Jacksonville, and 11 inches in Charlotte.
According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the storm marked the state’s fourth-largest single-day snowfall and the most significant snow event since 2004, with northeastern and coastal areas particularly hard hit.
Along the coast, the storm’s impact extended beyond snow. In Buxton, storm surge washed away a house Sunday morning, raising additional concerns about coastal safety and erosion.
The National Park Service reported that dozens of homes in the area sustained damage as a result of the storm. Elsewhere, fresh powder measuring up to 10 inches was visible overnight in Newport, North Carolina, and on the runways at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Governor Stein warned that lingering dangers remained even after the snowfall ended, noting that black ice would pose a serious risk throughout the week as overnight temperatures stayed below freezing.
“Today is a special day for North Carolina because we just don’t get snow like this very often,” Stein said. “So, have fun, stay off the roads and stay safe.”
Farther south, winter weather also made history in South Carolina. At Charleston International Airport, 0.7 inch of snow fell Saturday, breaking the previous daily record of 0.6 inch set in 1977, according to the National Weather Service field office in Charleston.
The South Carolina Department of Public Safety urged residents to remain at home, citing dangerous road conditions and a growing number of incidents involving vehicles sliding off roads and into ditches across large portions of the Upstate, northern Midlands, and Pee Dee regions.
Even Florida experienced rare wintry conditions. Light snow flurries were observed early Sunday morning in the Tampa Bay area near the National Weather Service field office, an unusual sight for the region. Meteorologists said the powerful weather system was located off the East Coast and continued to strengthen as it moved northward.
Snowfall extended into the Northeast as well. Light snow persisted over parts of eastern Massachusetts Sunday afternoon, with up to 2 inches possible along Cape Cod through early Monday.
However, forecasters said the primary threat from the system was shifting toward intense winds, which were expected to last into Monday. Gusts of 50 to 60 mph were possible, especially along coastal areas, potentially leading to coastal flooding of 2 to 4 feet along North Carolina’s Outer Banks and 1 to 2 feet near Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Power outages were widespread across the South, with more than 160,000 utility customers without electricity Sunday afternoon. Mississippi reported about 56,600 outages, Tennessee had roughly 44,100 customers without power, and Florida recorded nearly 26,000 outages.
The storm also ushered in a wave of extreme cold across much of the eastern United States. Numerous record low temperatures were set over the weekend, particularly in Florida, where Sanford, Melbourne, and Daytona Beach all recorded new daily and February lows.
On Saturday, Columbus, Ohio, saw temperatures plunge to minus 9 degrees, breaking the previous record of minus 6 set in 2004, according to the National Weather Service office in Wilmington. Islip, New York, also set a new record low of 0 degrees, surpassing the previous record of 3 degrees from 2019.
Despite the dangerous conditions, some residents embraced the cold. New Yorkers were spotted playing ice hockey on a frozen lake in Central Park, while another person was seen ice skating along a beach on the Jersey Shore.
Roughly 52 million people remained under cold weather alerts through Sunday afternoon, with daytime highs running 10 to 25 degrees below average. Wind chills were reported in the 30s and 40s across Florida, while Georgia and the Carolinas experienced wind chills in the teens and 20s.
Strong winds associated with the coastal storm system made conditions feel even colder across the eastern half of the country, with temperatures feeling like the teens across the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, and East Coast, and dipping to single digits or below zero in parts of the interior Northeast.
Forecasts showed that Sunday night temperatures would drop into the single digits and below zero across much of the Midwest and Northeast, with lows falling into the teens and 20s as far south as the Gulf Coast.
Dozens of additional record lows were possible Monday morning, including in Daytona Beach, Key West, Gainesville, and Miami in Florida; Wilmington and Charlotte in North Carolina; and Columbia and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.
While forecasters expect the most extreme cold to gradually ease early in the week, temperatures are still projected to remain 5 to 15 degrees below average across much of the eastern United States through next weekend.
