The biting winds and subzero temperatures that have turned the Northern plains, Midwest, and Great Lakes into a teeth-chattering misery, has hit north easterners. Maine residents were ready for Thursday reading down to 40 blow zero. And in the Midwest, Iowans were told that temperatures could drop as low as 27 below zero, matching a Jan. 15 record set in 1972. The deep freeze was part of a snow and arctic system that stretched from Montana to northern New England and dipped as far south as North Carolina.
Lake-effect snow warnings issued Thursday for Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Wind chill warnings were issued for those states as well as Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Missouri, and the Dakotas, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis.
Michigan, the community of Pellston, in the northern Lower Peninsula, and big rapids, in the central Lower Peninsula, were Michigan's cold spots at 6 a.m. Thursday with temperatures of minus 21 degrees. Glenwood, Minn, air temperatures were 29 degrees below zero on Thursday morning with the wind chill making it a staggering 54 degrees below zero. It was 20 degrees below zero at the Minneapolis St. Paul International airport, but the wind chill made it feel like 37 below zero.
Southwest Ohio, Butler County reopened it's former jail as an emergency shelter, with room for about 40 people to have a blanket, meal and shower, said nick Fischer of the sheriffs office. Fischer said the county will make room for more if needed.
Around Ohio, blowing snow grounded at least two medical helicopters called to transport accident victims. At the site of a wreck on Interstate 79 near Bowling Green, an ambulance had to drive two people to hospitals in Toledo. While "It's a dry heat in Arizona, This is a fresh cold." Light snow feel overnight in New York, temperatures early Thursday morning ranged from 7 above in Buffalo to 21 below in Massena in northern new York, lows of 18 below to 26 below are forecast for the Adirondacks Thursday night and Friday.
The frigid conditions caused complications for highway managers because road salt doesn't melt ice in subzero temperatures.
"Once we get into minus 10, minus 20, in some cases we have to go to just straight sand, a light dusting of sand, on the highway to get grit and provide traction." Said Mike Flick a transportation worker in Pamelia, N.Y.
Even northern Georgia and Kentucky could see single-digit lows by Friday, with zero possible at Lexington, K.Y., the weather service warned. Kentucky hasn't been that cold since December, 2004.
No comments:
Post a Comment