The weather appears to have flip-flopped this week, with a freeze descending on California and parts of the East Coast boasting uncharacteristically balmy t-shirt temperatures into the 60s.

West Coast produce farmers worried about their citrus crops as a freeze warning extended to Tuesday. Six Western states experienced record lows.

The National Weather Service said this will likely be the coldest weather of the season, with early Monday morning dipping into the mid-20s in some of the coastal valleys and on the central coast away from the beaches.

Meanwhile, nearly 100 cities on the East Coast topped record highs.

Where warm met cold, weather erupted. Heavy rains caused flooding in Indiana and a tornado destroyed a church in Kentucky. The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for Louisiana to the Ohio Valley through Monday morning.

--Reporting by NBC's Kristen Dahlgren and Isolde Raftery.

Drivers in Southern California were warned to watch out for flying debris, downed power lines and fallen trees as strong Santa Ana winds — some gusting to 70 mph — rushed through mountain passes and canyons in Los Angeles County.

The warning covers the Los Angeles County Coast, including downtown L.A. and the coastal areas of Ventura County, and will remain in effect through Thursday afternoon, Weather.com reported.

Residents were warned that loose soil, caused by saturation from recent rains, could result in trees toppling over in the high winds.

The Weather Service recorded gusts Wednesday morning of 70 mph in the San Gabriel mountains and in the high 60s elsewhere, NBCLosAngeles.com reported.

Santa Ana winds are strong and often destructive. They come out of the desert area east of the mountains and create perilously dry conditions. 

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Vicki Smith / AP

Snow covers the streets Tuesday, after Superstorm Sandy moved through Elkins, W.Va. Sandy buried parts of West Virginia under more than a foot of snow on Tuesday, cutting power to at least 243,000 customers and closing dozens of roads. At least one death was reported.

Wet snow and high winds spinning off the edge of Superstorm Sandy spread blizzard conditions over parts of West Virginia and neighboring Appalachian states Tuesday, shutting one interstate as trucks and cars bogged down and knocking out power to many.

The National Weather Service said more than a foot of snow was reported in lower elevations of West Virginia, where most towns and roads are. High elevations in the mountains were getting more than two feet and a blizzard warning for parts of the state was in effect until Wednesday afternoon.

Nearly 265,000 people in West Virginia were without power on Tuesday morning, according to The Charleston Gazette.

In Elkins, a city of about 7,000 people, power went out across town before dawn and the only lights were from passing snow plows as heavy, wet flakes piled up to about 8 inches.

Authorities closed more than 45 miles of Interstate 68 on either side of the West Virginia-Maryland state line because of blizzard conditions and stuck cars.

On the Maryland side, crews were trying to remove several tractor-trailers stuck on the highway. Four or five passenger vehicles also were abandoned in the median, State Highway Administration spokeswoman Kelly Boulware said.

The higher elevations in western parts of Maryland received more than a foot of snow since Monday afternoon, and it was still snowing Tuesday before dawn, Boulware said.

Police rescued several stranded motorists on the interstate in West Virginia, according to a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Bruce Schreiner / AP

Fred Brugge of Lexington, Ky., clears snow from his car windshield on Tuesday, at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park at Prestonsburg in eastern Kentucky. Snow settled in across portions of Kentucky's Appalachian region as part of Superstorm Sandy hitting the eastern U.S.

Officials in West Virginia said a woman was killed Monday in a storm-related traffic accident. A spokeswoman for Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said about 5 inches of snow had fallen in the area of Tucker County where the crash occurred, making road conditions treacherous.

A West Virginia state official told The Charleston Gazette that it's better if people stay off the roads.

"It's hazardous out there. It's definitely not over," state spokeswoman Leslie Fitzwater told the Gazette. "Stay in if you can, don't venture out. We need the roads open for first responders to get out there and do the work they need to do."

A significant winter storm continued in northeast Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains, where the National Weather Service forecast continuing snow showers over the higher elevations through Wednesday morning.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Heavy rain and thunderstorms caused part of the roof of a North Carolina mall to collapse Friday, NBC station WCNC in Charlotte reported.  

The station reported that the SouthPark Mall was evacuated and emergency crews were on the scene. The Charlotte Observer said no injuries were reported.

An aerial view showed two holes in the roof and some vehicles flooded in the mall parking lot, according to the station.

A flash flood warning was issued for the southern Mecklenburg county. Thunderstorms with widespread showers were expected Friday evening.

The National Weather Service said rainfall produced two inches per hour in the Charlotte area Friday. 

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Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify that there were two separate reports - an internal inquiry into alleged misappropriation of funds at the National Weather Service and an external inspector general's report into alleged misappropriation at NOAA.

Updated at 12:49.m. ET Monday: The director of the National Weather Service has stepped down after an internal investigation concluded that the federal agency misappropriated millions in taxpayer dollars.

Jack Hayes retired on Friday, a day after the head of the weather service’s parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, issued a memo spelling out the results of an investigation into allegations of mismanagement of funds.

This follows on the heels of a separate external investigation into NOAA that says the administration misappropriated $43.8 million by giving bonuses and extensions to contractors without proper justification.

In the weather service inquiry, the memo by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said investigators found evidence that weather service employees at its headquarters inappropriately “reprogrammed” funds in 2010 and 2011 by moving millions of dollars in program accounts and redirecting them to 122 weather service offices across the country.

According to the memo:

“The Investigative Team found that NWS employees engaged in the reprogramming of NWS funds without Congressional notification during the years in question. These actions may be a violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act. The Team also found failure of management and oversight by NWS leadership. In addition, the Team found significant problems with budget and financial controls at the National Weather Service and that Departmental financial and management controls were ineffective at detecting or preventing this inappropriate reprogramming.

Importantly, the Team did not find any evidence that any NWS employee committed fraud or received personal financial gain through their actions. This fact does not excuse, or reduce the seriousness of the employees’ actions.”

NOAA announced on Friday that Hayes was retiring and that Laura Furgione has been named acting assistant administrator of the weather service.

The investigative report recommends that weather offices be fully funded, that supervisory structure of NWS be restructured to provide additional oversight, and that the budget process be reformed to allow staff to raise substantive concerns about prioritization and long-term planning.

“The deeply troubling revelation that senior staff at the National Weather Service, which provides indispensable storm and weather forecasting, have been conducting improper and potentially illegal transfers of taxpayers’ money is unacceptable,” Sen. Olympia Snowe, the ranking member of Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard subcommittee, said in a statement Friday.

“I am further alarmed that the investigative report raises fundamental concerns that the core operations of the National Weather Service are underfunded, and that the current process in the Department of Commerce is broken, as it ‘did not encourage questioning or provide independent channels for reporting dubious budget decisions,’” Snowe stated.

NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen said in a statement:

“NOAA and department leadership will continue to work with the Inspector General’s office and members of Congress to ensure that processes are put in place to restore proper oversight, that funds are properly reprogrammed, and that all individuals responsible for these unauthorized transactions are held accountable.

“In addition, Commerce leadership is initiating department-wide actions to bring more rigor and transparency to the budget formulation and execution process at the sub-bureau level, as well as provide more training to managers on how to address complaints in a timely and appropriate manner."

Separately, an Office of the Inspector General report released May 18 said NOAA paid nearly $44 million in award fees or contract extensions without proper justification.

NOAA officials could not, for example, provide written explanation for why they paid $303,000 in awards on a $10 million contract to upgrade personnel and equipment for a satellite operations control center, the report says.

An $80 million contract for the National Weather Service's river, flood and drought forecasting specified that the contract, which consisted of a base period of five years, had to be evaluated annually. But the board assigned to evaluate the contract never met, the report says, nor had a chairperson been assigned.

Even so, auditors found that all five of the one-year extensions, totaling $40 million, were approved.

Of the nine contractors, NOAA gave eight high ratings, which allowed contractors to reap "substantial award fees," the report says. As a result, auditors concluded that NOAA's pay system "provided little incentive for contractors to excel in executing their contracts."

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Dan Joling / AP

Mallards take off from ice as a juvenile trumpeter swan swims by on Friday, April 6, 2012, at Westchester Lagoon in Anchorage, Alaska. The waterfowl made an appearance as nearly an inch of snow was falling on Alaska's largest city.

Anchorage on Saturday surpassed a 57-year-old record for snowfall in one season, the National Weather Service reported.

The old record of 132.6 inches in Alaska's largest city occurred in 1954-1955, it said. But 3.4 inches of snow that fell from midnight to 4 p.m. local time pushed the season total to 133.6 inches -- more than 11 feet, the National Weather Service said.

The total is nearly double Anchorage’s normal amount, The Associated Press said.

The city was 2.5 inches short of the record going into Easter weekend, NBC station KTUU said.

Snow began falling Friday morning, with 0.8 inches accumulating. More fell overnight Friday and throughout the day Saturday.

The season got off to a slow start, KTUU said.

The first snow didn't arrive until the Oct. 30. But each month from November to February there was above-normal snowfall, KTUU said. November saw the greatest snowfall, with 32.4 inches, close to three times the average for the month.

By March, Anchorage was on pace to shatter the record, but a slightly below normal month seemed to dim the chances of breaking the 1954-55 record, KTUU said.

No snow fell from mid-March until Friday, The Associated Press reported. Going into April, 3.3 inches were still needed to break the record.

Records have been kept at or very near the current location near the Ted Stevens International Airport since 1953.

City snow removal crews have hauled more than 2.5 million cubic yards of snow to the city's six snow disposal sites, which are close to capacity, The Associated Press reported. Maintenance and operations director Alan Czajkowski said that volume would almost fill the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

At the height of the snow overload, many residential streets were rimmed by snow-walled canyons that towered over fences and shielded homes. Some roofs collapsed, mostly on older commercial buildings with flat roofs.

On Friday afternoon, falling ice outside Anchorage crushed a car, trapping a 32-year-old woman inside and shutting the Seward Highway. Rescuers and passersby freed the woman and got her to a hospital, where she is recovering with severe head and neck injuries.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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A member of the #88 Diet Mountain Dew/National Guard Chevrolet crew wipes water from pit equipment during a rain delay for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 26.

It may have been nearly 85 degrees in parts of Florida, but rain poured over Daytona, resulting in the first-ever postponement of the Daytona 500 race, the Associated Press reported.

As heavy rain soaked Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, NASCAR workers never had a big enough window to dry the track.

Rain saturated the famed speedway, sending fans scattering for cover. Puddles of water formed in parts of the infield, and many fans got drenched as they tried to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation.

NASCAR officials spent more than four hours waiting for a window to dry the famed track, but it never came. When the latest storm cell passed over the speedway around 5 p.m., they had little choice but to call it a day.

NBC Sports: First one-day delay in 54-year history of the race

The 500-mile race has been rescheduled for noon Monday, when the National Weather Service forecast showers and a high of 75 degrees. Officials are prepared to wait all day and into the night to avoid a Tuesday race, which would strain teams that must get to Phoenix for next week's race.

NOAA.gov issued a small craft advisory and reported light rain, punctuated by brief downpours through 8 p.m.  

The Weather Channel reported that Sunday's rain has been the result of a weak upper-level system and that it would rain on and off throughout the evening.

Follow more Daytona 500 coverage on NBCSports.com.