The Nation - News from March 23, 1986

A cold snap gripped the South for the second consecutive day. Killing frost advanced into the Gulf states, and low-temperature records were broken in many cities. Vacationing college students wrapped themselves in beach towels against chilly Atlantic winds on the beaches of central Florida, where the mercury barely reached 60 degrees at midday. Overnight lows in the eastern half of the nation ranged from near zero in New England to the 50s in southern Florida. The low in Miami Beach was 50, a record for the date. Night temperatures dipped into the teens in Alabama, where an Auburn University horticulturist described damage to peach, pear and plum orchards as fair to moderate.