Floridians, subjected to eight hurricanes in the past 18 months, faced a new challenge Tuesday—record-breaking cool air in the wake of deadly hurricane Wilma. With electricity still out in an estimated three million homes, the chill was unwelcome and uncomfortable. Record morning lows included 48° at Vero Beach, 49° in Melbourne and 52° at West Palm Beach.
The big news Tuesday in the Mid-Atlantic and New England was wind-driven rain and the season’s first snowstorm. Rains fell horizontally in Boston in howling northeast winds clocked to 52 m.p.h. Buoys operated in the Atlantic by NOAA rocked in 20-25 ft. swells which tore at the coastline. Meantime, an injection of cold air turned rain to wet, tree-snapping snow responsible for power outages from interior Pennsylvania, western and northern New York and interior New England.
-Tom Skilling
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
