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 The eastern half of the country was getting a "plethora of winter
weather" just days before the Christmas holiday, according to the
National Weather Service.
"This storm is bringing a little bit of everything, from rain,
flooding and wind, to ice and snow in some areas," said NWS
meteorologist Bruce Sullivan. "What is really extraordinary about
this system, though, is the warm air."
The system is expected to linger over the East Coast until Monday,
snarling road and airline travel for millions of people during one
of the busiest travel periods of the year. Major airports in
Philadelphia and New York City were experiencing delays Sunday
because of wind and visibility, according to the Federal Aviation
Administration.
Hundreds of flights across the United States were canceled on
Sunday, according to the aviation tracking site, FlightAware.com
flight website.
The unusual storm system brought a brief winter heat wave to
northeastern cities with Philadelphia and New York City logging
record high temperatures on Saturday and Sunday.
The temperature in New York's Central Park topped out at 71 degrees
on Sunday, breaking a 1998 record of 63 degrees, the weather service
said. The temperature had reached 65 degrees in Central Park on
Saturday, breaking a 2011 record of 62 degrees. Temperatures in
Philadelphia reached a record 68 degrees on Sunday.
In Washington D.C., the temperature was hovering "about 40 degrees
warmer than normal," Sullivan added.
Farther north, in upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine
were pummeled by an ice storm after the warm air hit an arctic
layer, he said.
Thousands of people across New England were without power on Sunday
and motorists were urged to use caution after up to two inches of
ice coated roads and power lines. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
declared a winter ice storm emergency in four counties in the
state's north and west.
The powerful storm system tore through the southeast on Saturday,
spawning at least one confirmed tornado and leaving at least three
people dead.
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Two adults died when the car they were driving in struck a fallen
tree in the road in Jasper County, Mississippi, county coroner Randy
Graham told Reuters.
Another man was killed in Coahoma County when his mobile home blew
over in high winds, the NWS confirmed on Sunday.
In Nelson County, Kentucky, three drowning victims were pulled from
a submerged vehicle, according to local emergency response
officials. Elsewhere in the state, in Carroll County, an individual
was believed to have drowned.
A tornado touched down in the city of Redfield, Arkansas, damaging
several homes and downing tree limbs and power lines. Tornado sirens
rang in Nashville Saturday evening and a car lot in Louisville,
Kentucky, caught fire after nearby power lines were toppled.
Widespread damage from the storm system was also reported near
Dermott, Arkansas, in the southeast corner of the state, where five
homes were badly damaged, 15 suffered minor damage and four trucks
were blown off a highway, said David Cox, a National Weather Service
meteorologist in Jackson, Mississippi. Two people were injured, he
said.
"We are thinking it was a tornado," Cox said. "We had quite a bit of
rotation and quite a bit of damage." The storm hit at about 5 p.m.
local time, he said.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere and Edith Honan in New York, Tim
Ghianni in Nashville, and Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Missouri;
editing by G Crosse)
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