ORLANDO, Fla. — Mark and Barbara Willard were at home in Wickford, England, two weeks ago checking the weather forecast on the Internet before packing for their trip to Orlando — sunny and 70 degrees.
On Saturday afternoon, they had the hoods on their new coats pulled tight around their heads as they walked down the International Drive tourist strip. The weather: 35 degrees and cloudy with a chance of icy rain or even snow.
“The good news is two days after we go home, we’re off to Jamaica,” Mark Willard said.
The bad news is they paid in advance for theme-park tickets and instead spent more time at shopping malls buying winter clothing — a few hundred dollars’ worth, he said.
Across Florida, the weather was freakishly cold for a state that is a winter respite for so many. There were snow flurries spotted in several parts of the state, as far south as Naples on the Gulf Coast. In Miami, the temperature was forecast to drop just below freezing overnight and threatened to break the record for low temperatures.
In the Florida Keys, gusts were predicted to make the air feel like the upper 20s.
In suburban Atlanta, which has seen an unusually long stretch of low temperatures, two teens died Saturday after falling through the ice on a partially frozen pond. The surviving teen was in fair condition at Gwinnett Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Andrea Wehrmann.
In other parts of the country, the weather was less unusual for winter, but still harsh.
In Vermont, state police said a snowmobiling accident on a partially frozen lake killed three people Saturday, including a 3-year- old girl.
An ice jam along the Mississippi River prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood warning for southwestern Illinois and northeastern Missouri. The Weather Service said the river was near the 16-foot flood stage in Hannibal, Mo., on Saturday.
Amtrak said some trains between Chicago and Denver and between St. Paul, Minn., and Seattle wouldn’t operate Saturday and today because of cold, high winds and drifting snow.
