Southeast

Weather Underground midday recap for Tuesday, December 15, 2009.

Moderate to heavy snow and coastal rain continued across the Great Lakes and Northeast Tuesday as a storm system slowly moved through the region. Bands of heavy lake effect snow swept across the eastern and southern shores of Lake Ontario, Erie and Superior. Furthermore, the cold front associated with this storm system advanced southeast and supported rain and high elevation snow through the Appalachians, Mid-Atlantic and Gulf States.

Moving southward, a front that was responsible for widespread showers and numerous thunderstorms across the Deep South, with a couple of tornadoes in southeastern Alabama on Monday, remained nearly stationary on Tuesday. As a result, active weather persisted across the Gulf States Tuesday. Some heavy storms even produced hail up to an inch in diameter over southwestern Louisiana and areas of flooding occurred over southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In addition, weak low pressure in the Southeast caused scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms in Florida.

Out West, the Pacific system that pushed ashore Monday night continued its east movement Tuesday. Light to moderate rain and mountain snow developed across the Northwest and northern California and parts of the Cascades saw snow changing to a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain in the afternoon.

It was a fairly cold day across the Midwest Tuesday. High pressure building behind the cold front kept temperatures below zero in northeastern Montana, North Dakota and northern Minnesota Tuesday. In contrary, the warmest region was in southern Florida, where afternoon highs were in the 80s.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Tuesday have ranged from a morning low of -36 degrees at Jordan, Mont. to a midday high of 86 degrees at Lakeland Region, Fla.