Alabama’s “port city” sweltered under record heat yesterday as other parts of the nation deal with a blizzard that’s left icy streets, homes under blackout conditions, and grounded passenger planes. The mercury hit 82 degrees in Mobile on Wednesday. The Associated Press says that set a record for that date for the Gulf coast community, and the port city had company. The National Weather Service says Nashville topped out Wednesday at 80 degrees, breaking a 127 old record for the date. Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Lexington, Kentucky as well as Mobile were among many other record-setters.
While Gulf coast residents swelter, other parts of the nation are dealing with blizzard conditions. A brutal winter storm across much of the country trapped drivers on icy roads, blacked out hundreds of thousands of homes, grounded airplanes and closed schools. Now, California is in its chilly grip. A rare blizzard warning has been issued for Southern California mountains. The last such emergency for the Golden State was 1989. Meanwhile, a coast-to-coast weather pattern that's pummeled states from Arizona to Michigan is expected to continue and spread to the East Coast later in the week. In Wyoming, motorists were stranded in cars on windy, snowy highways. The weather also contributed to electrical problems, with close to six hundred thousand customers without power overnight in Michigan alone.
"We are in for a VERY busy week!" the National Weather Service bureau in San Diego tweeted. "We have issued warnings for damaging winds, heavy mountain snow, highly hazardous boating conditions and the list goes on." The storm, one in a series that was expected to pummel the country through the week, sowed chaos coast to coast. At one point Wednesday, more than 65 million people in more than two dozen states were under weather alerts. The wintry mix hit hard in the northern U.S., closing schools, offices, even shutting down the Minnesota Legislature. About 90 churches in western Michigan canceled Ash Wednesday services, WZZM-TV reported. In Wyoming, the state Transportation Department posted on social media that roads across much of the southern part of the state were impassable.
