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While talking about the weather, I said:
✖️ いきなり涼しくなった
My interlocutor corrected me:
◯ 急に涼しくなった
I would like to understand what makes いきなり inappropriate to avoid making the same kind of mistake again.
I have found that the following sentences are correct even though they look quite similar to 「涼しくなった」 to me:
◯ いきなり揺れた。 （今朝起きた地震についてなど）
◯ 車を運転していたら、いきなりタイヤが破裂した。
◯ いきなりトイレが使えなくなった。
I have read this, but it did not help me understand when not to use いきなり.
いきなり is not terribly wrong, but いきなり tends to express a truly instant event that occurs all of a sudden. If I understand the context correctly, you are describing a phenomenon that progresses over a few days, so 急に sounds more natural. But if you have unexpectedly entered a cold room, saying いきなり涼しくなった is equally natural.
As the linked question says, いきなり also carries the nuance of subjective unexpectedness or mental unpreparedness, but this difference is not important now.
