An Easter Basket Full Of Brrrr!
An unseasonable cold snap put a chill on Easter Sunday services across the Southeast and much of the rest of America, moving some events indoors and adding layers over spring frocks.
Even baseball had to take a time out — because of snow.
The usual courtyard service at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Columbia, South Carolina, had to be moved indoors, said the Rev. Michael Bingham. Sunday morning lows in Columbia dropped to the upper 20s Fahrenheit, the National Weather Service said.
"Our musicians are worried about their fingers," he said Saturday as the church's plans were being changed.
Across much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation, Easter celebrants swapped frills, bonnets and sandals for coats, scarves and heavy socks. Baseball fans huddled in blankets and, instead of spring planting, backyard gardeners were bundling their crops.
Two weeks into spring, Easter morning temperatures were in the upper 30s along the Gulf Coast and in the single digits in northern Minnesota and the Dakotas. Atlanta had a low of 30 degrees, the weather service said. The same reading put a chill on New York City's Fifth Avenue, celebrated in song for the traditional Easter Parade of spring finery.
Despite the chill, nearly 1,000 people attended the annual sunrise service at Georgia's Stone Mountain Park, as a slight breeze whipped over the granite monument. The service usually attracts 10,000.
Nashville, Tennessee, bottomed out Sunday at 23 degrees, knocking one degree off the Easter Sunday record set on March 24, 1940.
Light snow showers were scattered over the western Plains and around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.
The teams were snowed out of the doubleheader on Saturday, when they were attempting to make up Friday's game, which was postponed after they played four innings and sat through nearly three hours of delays.
Officials in Morrison, Colorado, canceled Sunday's annual sunrise service at the Red Rocks Amphitheater because seats and stairways were covered with ice.
Visitors to the nation's capital awoke Saturday to see cherry blossoms coated with snow. Snow also fell in metro Atlanta Friday night, and even in parts of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.