 "Flights grounded at Orlando airport after extreme cold triggers tower alert")
Flights at Orlando International Airport were halted on Sunday afternoon after extreme cold triggered an emergency alert in the air traffic control tower, prompting a temporary ground stop that was lifted once the cause was identified, according to a report by the New York Post.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reportedly issued an alert about the ground stop due to a “possible fire” at an air traffic control tower early Sunday afternoon. The order was, however, lifted at 4:15 pm (local time) after the cause was determined.
Cause traced to fire suppression system
In reality, the extreme cold—currently 43 degrees—caused a sprinkler head in the fire suppression system at the facility to activate, the New York Post reported.
The agency had sent out a bare-bones “fire alarm/safety” advisory that a tower was evacuating due to a possible fire, with the probability of the ground stop being extended cited as “medium”.
According to FlightAware, 213 flight delays were reported into or out of Florida’s busiest airport on Sunday.
Cold records across Florida
Sunday saw cold records smashed over the Sunshine State, with Daytona Beach, Leesburg, Sanford, Orlando, Melbourne, Vero Beach, and Fort Pierce all notching their coldest low temperatures ever notched in the month of February.
In Orlando, the mercury fell to 28 degrees in 1936, but Feb. 1 set a new record when the temp dipped to a chilly 24.
The brisk weather was enough to prompt the National Weather Service to issue an extreme cold warning throughout every county in east-central Florida, lasting from 7 p.m. Sunday through 10 a.m. Monday.
NWS warned of “dangerously cold wind chills” to come, with temperatures as low as 14-20 degrees across Volusia, Lake, Seminole, Orange, Brevard, Osceola, Indian River, Okeechobee, Saint Lucie, and Martin counties.
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