An unseasonable cold snap put a chill on Easter Sunday services across the Southeast and much of the rest of the US, moving some events indoors and adding layers over spring frocks.
Even baseball had to take a time out -- because of snow.
The usual courtyard service at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Columbia, South Carolina, had to be moved indoors, said the Reverend Michael Bingham. Sunday morning lows in Columbia dropped to minus 2oC, the National Weather Service said.
Across much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation, Easter celebrants swapped frills, bonnets and sandals for coats, scarves and heavy socks. Baseball fans huddled in blankets and, instead of spring planting, backyard gardeners were bundling their crops.
Two weeks into spring, Easter morning temperatures were 4oC along the Gulf Coast and minus 20oC in northern Minnesota and the Dakotas. Atlanta had a low minus 1oC, the 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 spring 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. The service usually attracts 10,000.
Nashville, Tennessee, bottomed out on Sunday at minus 5oC, knocking off the Easter Sunday record set on March 24, 1940.
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