ATLANTA — Fountains froze over, a 200-foot Ferris wheel in Atlanta shut down, and Southerners had to dig out winter coats, hats and gloves they almost never have to use.
The record-breaking polar air that has made the Midwest shiver over the past few days spread to the East and South on Tuesday, sending the mercury plunging into the single digits and teens from Boston and New York to Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville and Little Rock.
“I didn’t think the South got this cold,” said Marty Williams, a homeless man originally from Chicago who took shelter at a church opposite Georgia’s Statehouse in Atlanta. “That was the main reason for me to come down from up North, from the cold, to get away from all that stuff.”
Across the South, records were shattered like icicles:
• Birmingham, Ala., dipped to a low of 7, breaking the record of 11 set in 1970.
• Atlanta saw a record low of 6.
• Huntsville, Ala., dropped to 5.
• Nashville, Tenn., got down to 2.
Natural gas demand in the U.S. set a record Tuesday, eclipsing the mark set a day earlier, according to Jack Weixel, director of energy analysis at Bentek Energy.
