US winter weather leads to heavy snow, cancelled flights and, in Florida, falling iguanas

A huge swathe of the United States from the Gulf coast into New England was mired in extra-cold temperatures on Sunday after a bomb cyclone brought heavy snow and hundreds of flight cancellations to North Carolina, flurries and falling iguanas in Florida, and more misery for thousands who are still without power from last weekend’s ice storm in the south.About 150 million people were under cold weather advisories and extreme cold warnings in the eastern portion of the US, with the coldest air mass seen in South Florida since December 1989, said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the weather prediction centre in College Park, Maryland.The Tampa-St Petersburg area in Florida saw low temperatures that left cold-stunned iguanas lying prostrate and motionless on the ground. Iguanas in South Florida go dormant in the cold and though they usually wake when temperatures warm, the reptiles can die after more than a day of extreme cold.The cold also left ice on strawberries and oranges in the state. Farmers in Florida sometimes spray water on fruit trees and berry plants to protect them from the cold.Meanwhile, the bomb cyclone, known to meteorologists as an intense, rapidly strengthening weather system, contributed to nearly 30cm (1ft) of snow in and around Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city.In eastern North Carolina, James City recorded 45cm (18 inches) of snow, while Swansboro recorded 43cm (17 inches), the National Weather Service reported.Flight cancellations exceeded 2,800 in the US on Saturday, with another 1,500 on Sunday, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking and data company. About 800 of those Sunday cancellations were for flights departing or arriving from Charlotte Douglas International Airport.