Arctic air breaks records; warmer days on the way
BOSTON—The blast of arctic air that engulfed portions of the East Coast broke cold temperature records from Maine to West Virginia and stunned sea turtles in Florida—although a warm-up is coming today.
Burlington, Vt., and Portland, Maine, set records, with Burlington falling to minus 20, beating a 1923 record by a degree, and Portland recording minus 11, also a degree below a 1941 record.
The National Weather Service said Worcester, Mass., which fell to minus 9, and Providence, R.I., which dropped to minus 3, also set record lows, as did Hartford, Conn., where the temperature dropped to minus 9, smashing a 1912 record.
Boston tied a low-temperature record set more than a century ago in 1896 of minus 2.
Record-low temperatures were also set in parts of West Virginia.
The extended period of severe cold has begun to get on the nerves of even the flintiest of New Englanders.
Evan Premo, of Marshfield, Vt., stepped into a Capitol Grounds coffee shop in Montpelier for lunch Sunday with his two young sons, ages 5 and 3.
“We’ve been stir crazy because we spend so much time outside always, so yeah, it’s a challenge,” said Premo.
Cleveland has also been dealing with two weeks of frigid temperatures.
Arthur Bassett, who manages a coffee shop in downtown Cleveland, said Sunday the cold temperatures are what people in northeastern Ohio have come to expect.
“Clevelanders have toughness engrained in them,” Bassett said. “You deal with this.”
The good news is the bone-numbing air is set to push out of the region.
By Monday, Boston temperatures should return to a more seasonable low 30s. The mercury will continue to rise, and Boston could see temperatures in the mid-40s by Thursday and as high as the low 50s on Friday.