Cold settles into Tampa. Flight disruptions persist at TPA from winter storm.

Passengers relax while they wait to board their flights at Tampa International Airport on Monday. Nearly half of flights at the airport were canceled or delayed because of a winter storm.

Over the past weekend, the U.S. encountered a significant winter storm, and now, following several days of warm temperatures, Florida is finally experiencing a hint of the cold.

On Monday, temperatures in Florida, including the Tampa Bay region, fell due to the arrival of cold air from the north. At the same time, thousands more flights were canceled across the country, with several impacting Tampa International Airport.

Late Monday afternoon, the airport reported that slightly more than half of its flights for the day were on time. However, airport data revealed that 88 flights, representing almost 18% of the total, were canceled, and 147 flights, or nearly 31%, were delayed.

According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, over 200 flights to and from the airport were canceled the day before the disruptions occurred.

By early Tuesday, temperatures are anticipated to drop into the 20s along the Nature Coast and approach freezing in Tampa Bay. Areas of northwest Florida will experience a rare extreme cold warning from Monday night into Tuesday morning, with wind chills potentially plummeting to a frigid 10 degrees.

The National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning, indicating that temperatures may drop below freezing, for a large part of the Nature Coast and Pasco County. This warning will be in effect from midnight until 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Those regions, including inland Hillsborough, will also be under a freeze watch from late Tuesday through Wednesday morning. Forecasters mentioned that the watch might extend further south if the guidance indicates colder temperatures.

The rest of west-central Florida, including Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, will experience a cold weather advisory from midnight until 9 a.m. on Tuesday. Wind chills could drop to 26 degrees. Forecasters warned that prolonged exposure to the cold may lead to hypothermia.

As cold weather nears, meteorologists advise residents to safeguard the four P's: people, pets, plants, and pipes.

Cold weather shelters in Pasco, Pinellas, and Hillsborough will open on Monday night. In Pasco and Hillsborough, the shelters will also be open on Tuesday night.

Nonetheless, the weather service indicated that the Tampa Bay area will avoid the icy chaos that has affected a large portion of the United States. The extensive winter storm has caused ice, power outages, blocked roads, and severe cold across much of the southern and eastern United States.

There have been reports of at least 25 deaths related to the weather.

And on Monday, the workweek began with additional snowfall in the Northeast.

Heavy snowfall, exceeding a foot and stretching across a 1,300-mile area from Arkansas to New England, brought traffic to a standstill, led to flight cancellations, and caused widespread school closures on Monday. In some of the more severely affected areas, up to 2 feet of snow was predicted.

On Monday afternoon, there were over 750,000 power outages across the nation, primarily in the South, as reported by poweroutage.com. The region experienced sleet and freezing rain due to the storm. Additionally, by late afternoon Monday, there were more than 8,000 flight delays and cancellations nationwide, according to flightaware.com.

According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, Sunday saw the cancellation of 45% of U.S. flights, marking the highest number of cancellations since the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 12,000 flights were canceled, and nearly 20,000 experienced delays.

Authorities reported that at one point on Sunday morning, approximately 213 million people were under various winter weather warnings.

After the storm, bitter cold ensued. Temperatures in parts of Minnesota dropped to minus 40 degrees on Sunday. On Monday, numerous communities throughout the Midwest, South, and Northeast experienced subzero temperatures. The entire Lower 48 states were anticipated to have their coldest average low temperature — minus 9.8 F — since January 2014.

According to former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue, who uses National Weather Service data to calculate national averages, the record warmth in Florida was the sole factor preventing the average from becoming even colder.