Easter Bunny Bundles Up

(CBS/AP)  Never mind the Easter bonnets. In a large swath of the U.S., you had better remember where you put your winter hat and put it on.

Just about everywhere east of the Rockies, it's extremely cold for this time of year – with snow in parts of the Northeast and Midwest, and freezing temperatures elsewhere - and it's going to stay this way right through the weekend.

Parts of the upper Northeast are slogging through over a foot of snow which closed schools, tangled traffic and knocked out power to more than 180,000 homes and businesses.

Frost and freeze warnings are in effect for the next few nights throughout much of the Southeast, while the snow continues to pile up across portions of the Great Lakes and the Northeast, which has seen more snow so far this April than what fell over the entire month of December.

The cold weather, says CBS News meteorologist George Cullen, is the result of an intense storm system sweeping down extremely cold air from central Canada on down to the eastern half of the U.S.

The result, says Cullen, is temperatures 15 to 30 degrees below normal, with many record lows likely over the weekend, from the Ohio Valley on down to southeast coast.

At least two deaths – traffic accidents in New Hampshire and Michigan - are blamed on the wintry weather, which began late Wednesday.

The flakes fell at a rate of up to 2 inches per hour, and by early Thursday, areas of Maine already had nearly a foot and a half of wet, heavy snow, and central New Hampshire saw 16 inches in spots. Up to 24 inches fell in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, as many as 13 inches in Vermont, and upstate New York had several inches as well.

In Kansas, five to eight inches of snow is on the ground in the east-central and north-central parts of the state, and with temperatures expected to dip into the lower 20s and teens in the next few days, farmers are worried about their crops.

The cold snap came after two weeks of exceptionally warm weather, with highs around Kansas of from 60 to 80 degrees, speeding up the growth of the wheat by about two weeks.

"I'm concerned," says Saline County wheat farmer Gary Olson. "Usually if it gets below 24 degrees, the experts tell us our wheat crop might be in trouble."

"We're pretty vulnerable," says Tom Maxwell, agricultural extension agent in Salina. If the weatherman's right, he adds, "we're going to see some damage."

In Nebraska, it's also cold and snowy, but some locals are unimpressed, pointing out that snow in early April is far from unprecedented in the Plains.

In Arkansas, snow is not an issue, but the cold is – with freeze warnings in effect and record lows expected over the weekend.

Things will also be a lot nippier than usual in Augusta, Ga., home of the Masters golf tournament, already underway.

It will be one of the coldest Masters ever, says Cullen, with temperatures struggling to get out of the 50s. "Usually the temperatures are not lower than the scores; this year, they will be."

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[urbanblue]

Quite right midashand. i should count myself among the sterile. The scary thing is that it still makes me 10 times smarter than the avg Global warming fanatic

[midashand]

Bahaha! "preserve the spices" oh my... I know it is a simple mistake but that made my day... heheh

[urbanblue]

Global Warming is now an industry and no longer science. If you still believe global warming is nothing more than an economic attempt to level the playing field, then please, please get yourself sterilized so that we can preserve the spices.

[frank3108]

TO NORDECK 52, IT WAS SARCASM FOR ALL THE LIBERALS WHO BLAME BUSH FOR EVERYTHING INCLUDING THE BIG 05 HURRICANE SEASON SORRY I HAD TO EXPLAIN THAT FOR YOU.

[tucson23]

If you're stupid enough to confuse "weather" with "climate," it's no surprise you would believe politicians over scientists when it comes to global warming. I hope you are enjoying your thousands of shares of energy company stock (oh wait, you're poor? Then why are you all so hell bent to protect polluters? Oh wait, you're stupid, I almost forgot).

[midashand]

Very true, unfortunately. _

[nordeck52]

I hope so, midashand, but you never can tell anymore. :P

[midashand]

Uhm nordeck, I think he was joking..... :P

you know, sarcasm....

[apetrelli]

The reason it's relevant to talk about Global Warming and Bush, etc., here is that *every* bloody article mentioning an Indian summer, warm day in Winter, unusual seasonal averages on the upside talks about Global Warming, as if it's confirmatory. For balance, it's fair to cite this as counterevidence.

Yes, the truth is that neither unseasonably warm or cold weather in one place or region is relevant at all to Global Warming. But is only one side supposed to follow the rules?

I thought Global Warming scaremongerers had science on their side? Why aren't they debunking all the claims that warm weather patterns are confirmatory?

[moronpolitics]

Global Warming? Right, 35 degrees in Dallas on Easter Weekend. George Bush better stop right now!! And.... The solution is easy. Ever throw the whole five pounds of bacon into a frying pan? Even though it was hot, maybe too hot, that's just too much bacon and it COOLS the pan. Now, the sun is bigger than a frying pan, BUT ( yes, that's a great big BUT ) if we took Rosie and shot her into the sun.......AND it would lower carbon dioxide and methane emissions.