FIRST SNOW WHITE, THEN THE BIG CHILL
BITTERLY COLD WEATHER CREATES HAVOC ACROSS CANADA, U.S.
The powerful winter storm that crashed into the East Coast this week, dropping snow across the U.S. and Atlantic Canada, is gone.
What it left behind is cold. So, so much cold. Here is how the frigid temperatures and the massive storm have impacted people across North America.
POWER OUTAGES, STORM SURGES, PILES OF SNOW IN ATLANTIC CANADA
Tens of thousands of people in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. woke up in the dark Friday due to power outages linked to winds that gusted up to 170 kilometres an hour at their highest in Grand Étang, N.S., as part of a system being dubbed a “weather bomb” on social media sites.
By 11 a.m. Friday, Nova Scotia Power was reporting 2,000 outages affecting almost 83,000 customers, while NB Power was dealing with 140 outages that affected 16,000 customers. Both utilities had dispatched large crews throughout the area to continue the restoration effort as winds gusted to 80 km/h.
Some roadways were washed out and others littered with debris due to storm surges and heavy rains, according to Dominic Fewer of Nova Scotia’s Emergency Management Office.
In New Brunswick, crews began clearing away mounds of snow that began piling up when the slow-moving, lowpressure system moved into the area Thursday afternoon. The highest snowfall was recorded at Pokemouche, which got a staggering 58 centimetres, while Big River nearby got 50 centimetres of snow. Fredericton reported 25 centimetres of snow early Friday.
U.S. DIGS OUT FROM STORM, PREPARES FOR INTENSE COLD
Forecasters predict strong winds and record-breaking cold air will sweep the region, from the mid-Atlantic to New England, and hang around through the weekend.
The arctic blast could make temperatures feel as low as -26 C to -31 C from Philadelphia to Boston.
The wind chill could make it feel like minus 37 degrees in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, the National Weather Service said.
The storm began days ago in the Gulf of Mexico and first struck the Florida Panhandle. By Thursday, it was wreaking havoc as blizzard warnings and states of emergency went into effect along the eastern seaboard. Wind gusts hit more than 113 km/h in places and some areas saw as much as 46 centimetres of snow.
The storm caused school and business closings, airline and rail service cancellations or reductions and thousands of utilities outages, many of them restored quickly.
Flights resumed at many airports Friday, and business was expected to pick up as the day progressed.
SEVERAL DEAD DUE TO COLD, STORM
Cold weather and blizzard conditions have been blamed in the deaths of a number of people over the past two weeks.
An elderly woman who went to check on her husband on their southwestern Ontario property died outdoors from extreme cold earlier this week, while her spouse was found dead after a medical incident.
A Winnipeg woman who walked away from a hospital and was later found dead outdoors in frigid temperatures was two months pregnant, her mother says. The 29-year-old mother of four was found Dec. 28, far from the hospital. Temperatures were well below -20 C at the time.
Authorities say a 64-yearold Ohio man whose body was found on the front porch of his home by a meal delivery driver froze to death.
In North Carolina, authorities have confirmed a fourth death because of this week’s winter storm.
Surf City Police Chief Ron Shanahan released a statement saying officers found a vehicle submerged in a canal during the storm early Thursday.
A State Emergency Management spokesman says investigators have determined the winter storm caused the driver to slide off the road and into the canal.
Maine authorities are searching for a clammer who disappeared during the blizzard.
FIRES ATTRIBUTED TO SPACE HEATERS
Louisiana is in the midst of a recent surge in firerelated deaths — some of which are likely due to the recent spate of cold weather, the state fire marshal’s office said in a statement.
Since December, the fire marshal’s investigators have responded to more than six residential fires that resulted in more than 10 deaths.
The state fire marshal’s office said in a statement Thursday that investigators believe four recent deaths may have been caused by the use of space heaters.
Three children and one woman died in a Friday morning house fire in Baton Rouge, La., where a neighbour watched in horror as a young woman ran from the home with her clothes on fire.
Officials didn’t immediately determine the cause of the fire but were investigating whether heating equipment may have ignited it.
EUROPE ESCAPES DEEP FREEZE — FOR NOW
While Europe has been spared the kind of blizzard that caused havoc in North America, the same weather front caused a spate of storms in late December and this week over Europe.
January is likely to be warmer than average overall, but the second week will see some bursts of colder air, said Matthew Dobson, energy meteorologist at Meteogroup. There is a risk that high pressure over Scandinavia is slower to move away, prolonging a cold spell, said Tyler Roys, a meteorologist at Accuweather. Colder-than-normal temperatures are expected in Iberia, France, Germany and Nordics in February.