Atlanta – An unseasonable cold snap put a chill on Easter Sunday services across the Southeast and much of the rest of the country, moving some events indoors and forcing many to add layers over spring frocks.
Even baseball had to take a timeout because of snow.
The usual courtyard service at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Columbia, S.C., had to be moved indoors, said the Rev. Michael Bingham. Lows in Columbia dropped to the upper 20s.
“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, those celebrating Easter swapped bonnets and sandals for coats and scarves. Baseball fans huddled under blankets, and instead of spring planting, gardeners sat on the sidelines.
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, with a wind chill of 23, the National 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 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.
Nashville, Tenn., bottomed out Sunday at 23 degrees, knocking one degree off the Easter Sunday record set March 24, 1940.
Light snow showers were scattered over the western Plains and around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. But the snow was heavy along the Lake Erie shore in Cleveland, and for the second day in a row, the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians had to cancel a doubleheader. More than a foot of snow has fallen in the Cleveland area since Friday.
