Unseasonable chill: Two weeks into spring, it's feeling a lot like Christmas

ATLANTA -- An unseasonable cold snap put a chill on Easter Sunday services across the Southeast and much of the rest of the country, 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, S.C., had to be moved indoors, said the Rev. Michael Bingham. Sunday morning lows in Columbia dropped to the upper 20s, the National Weather Service said.

"Our musicians are worried about their fingers," he said Saturday as the church's plans were being changed.

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.

ABOVE: Miniature irises poked through the snow in Falmouth, Maine, on Sunday after a severe spring storm dumped more than a foot of snow in the region earlier in the week. (Oscar Barberena ~ Associated Press)

Two weeks into spring, Easter morning temperatures were in the upper 30s along the Gulf Coast and in the single digits in northern Minnesota and the Dakotas. Atlanta had a low of 30 degrees, with a wind chill of 23, 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, Tenn., bottomed out Sunday at 23 degrees, knocking one degree off the Easter Sunday record set on March 24, 1940.

Light snow showers were scattered over the western Plains and around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.

However, the snow was heavy along the Lake Erie shore in Cleveland and on Sunday, for the second day in a row, the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians had to cancel a doubleheader. More than a foot of snow had fallen parts of the Cleveland area since Friday.

LEFT: Samuel Bailey, 4, waited for the start of a blustery Easter egg hunt Saturday in the Longpoint subdivision in Mount Pleasant, S.C. Temperatures hovered in the low 40s Saturday morning. (Alan Hawes ~ The Post and Courier)

The teams were snowed out of the doubleheader on Saturday, when they were attempting to make up Friday's game, which was postponed after they played four innings and sat through nearly three hours of delays.

Officials in Morrison, Colo., canceled Sunday's annual sunrise service at the Red Rocks Amphitheater because seats and stairways were covered with ice.

Kids in Chicago donned winter clothing for an Easter egg hunt at the Glessner House Museum. The city high reached just 32 degrees on Saturday -- matching a record set in 1936 -- and Sunday's low was 28. The Windy City's average high for early April is 54.

"All the little kids had boots on and some of them were trying to wear their spring dresses. It was awful," said Clare Schaecher, the museum's education director.

Visitors to the nation's capital awoke Saturday to see cherry blossoms coated with snow. Snow also fell in metro Atlanta Friday night, and even in parts of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.

Heavier snow in Ohio postponed Saturday's doubleheader between the Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners. The doubleheader had been scheduled because Friday's home opener in Cleveland was postponed.

Farmers were worried about the impact the weather could have on crops. Blueberries could be particularly affected, said Stanley Scarborough, production manager of Sunnyridge Farms, which has fields in Baxley and Homerville, Ga.

Scarborough said the majority of the state's blueberry crop, a variety called rabbit-eye, is normally harvested around June 1. This year, the bushes bloomed early because of a wave of warm temperatures last week. Scarborough the blueberries are not able to withstand freezing temperatures.

"At 26 or 27 degrees, you would probably lose half of the Georgia crop," valued at about $20 million to $25 million dollars, Scarborough said.