Orlando International Airport was forced to ground all flights on Sunday afternoon after “extreme cold” spared an emergency in the air traffic tower.
The FAA issued an alert about the ground stop due to a “possible fire” at an air traffic control tower early Sunday afternoon, but the order was lifted at 4:15 p.m. after the cause was determined.
In reality, the extreme cold — currently 43 degrees — caused a spinkler head in the fire suppression system at the facility to activate.
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.
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.
