Cold Front Stings the South; Citrus Crop Weathers First Blow

An arctic cold front sent temperatures tumbling across the South on Saturday, breaking or tying record lows in 27 cities from North Carolina to southern Florida, while blustery winds blew snow across the East and Midwest.

The Florida citrus crop survived its first brush with freezing temperatures this winter with little or no damage to the billion-dollar harvest, 45% of which is still on the trees, industry officials said Saturday.

“Basically, we came through this in pretty good shape with just a few grove owners in our northern production areas reporting lows of 27 to 28 degrees for any length of time,” said Bobby F. McKown, executive vice president of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest citrus growers association.

Citrus growers were braced for another night of cold temperatures. Freeze warnings and advisories were posted Saturday night across northern, central and southern Florida.

Record lows were reported in 12 cities across Florida, the National Weather Service said. Daytona Beach plunged to 28 degrees, breaking the record of 29 set in 1943, and Ft. Lauderdale slipped to 40 degrees, tying a record set in 1953. The mercury hit 25 degrees in Jacksonville and 53 degrees in Key West.

Cold-temperature records were set Saturday in 15 other cities across the South, with Asheville, N.C., falling to 4 degrees and Huntsville, Ala., reaching 14.

The low temperature for the nation on Saturday morning was 7 degrees below zero at Hibbing, Minn.; Park Falls, Wis.; St. Cloud, Minn., and Watertown, N.Y.

Warnings of gale-force winds were posted for the Great Lakes and the central Atlantic Coast, and snow squall warnings were in effect for the shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

A windchill advisory covered western New York state.

Snow was falling from northern Maine to North Dakota and Idaho, and rain stretched from the Gulf Coast of Texas to Arizona, Utah and Wyoming.