Snow eerie in Erie

THE WEATHER outside is way beyond frightful in Erie, Pa., with the lakefront city blanketed with more than 5 feet of snow since Christmas, part of a brutal winter assault that left much of the Northeast and Midwest feeling like a block of ice.

Boston, at 18 degrees, was twice as warm as Chicago on Wednesday, which wasn’t really saying much considering that the aptly named Windy City registered only 9 degrees.

Wind-chill advisories or warnings were in effect for all of North Dakota and Wisconsin, as well as swaths of South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Indiana.

The advisories were also in effect for parts of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. Meteorologists warn frostbite is possible with as little as 30 minutes of exposure.

But nowhere was winter’s wrath on display more than in Erie, where the holiday favorite “Let It Snow” played on a continuous loop. In the meadow, they can build a million snowmen after a marathon storm dumped nearly 64 inches there in three days.

What started as a wondrous white Christmas like the one Bing Crosby used to sing about quickly became something out of a holiday horror movie. Snow blowers and shovels won’t get a break anytime soon. Forecasters predicted an additional 10 inches in Erie on Thursday and Friday.

The record snowfall in Erie was caused by cold arctic air moving over Lake Erie, which had relatively mild water temperatures, forecasters said.

Resident of Erie, Pa., which has been walloped by more than 5 feet of snow since Christmas, tries to make way on foot Wednesday. Woes of city of a little under 100,000 are part of wintry assault in Northeast and Midwest.