The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
WICKEDLY COLD
“It’s definitely cold and the type of bonechilling cold that happens every few years.”
— Dan Hofmann, a
meteorologist with the
National Weather Service in
Baltimore
The snowstormthat hit the East Coast with frigid, wind-whipped whiteness and ice that wouldn’t melt seems to pick a different bull’s eye target each day.
On Saturday, wind chill warnings throughout the Northeast hit Burlington, Vermont, with a temperature of minus 1 and a wind chill of minus 30. Both Philadelphia and New York were shivering at 8 degrees, with wind chills of minus 11 in Philadelphia and minus 9 in New York.
And in Hartford, Connecticut, a brutal cold of 10 degrees yielded a wind chill of minus 20.
These locations, however, had nothing on the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The Mount Washington Observatory, on its website, predicted that the mountain’s highest summits could see wind chills of minus 100 degrees Saturday. At 6 a.m. Saturday, it tied with Armstrong, Ontario, as the second coldest place in the world at minus 36.
In New Jersey, many people chose to stay home instead of dealing with single-digit temperatures. Others were cleaning up fromthe storm that dropped more than a foot of snow in some spots earlier in the week.
“My car felt like an icebox this morning, even though I had the heat on full blast,” Julie Williams said as she sipped coffee inside a Jackson Township convenience store. She was headed to work at a local supermarket, and was expecting the store to be packed.
“People think it’s nuts before a storm happens, with everyone getting milk, bread, etc.” she said, adding with a laugh, “but it’s even worse in the days afterward, because they do the same thing but they’re a little crazy from cabin fever.”
In Rhode Island, hospitals were treating dozens of storm-related injuries as the region grits through a deep freeze that followed a powerful blizzard.
In Providence and Newport, at least 40 people were treated for various weatherrelated conditions, from heart attacks, snowblower or shoveling injuries, motor vehicle accidents, frostbite, hypothermia and in- juries including slips and falls, according to The Providence Journal.
The stormdropped more than 14 inches of snow in Providence.
The cold conditions everywhere will last most of the weekend, but Monday expects to be the first day above freezing since last month. In New York City, temperatures should reach 40 degrees next week.
Even more locations won’t escape the cold; the mercury should be dipping into the single digits in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., during the weekend, about 20 degrees below normal for this time of year.
The blast of cold air could bring the feeling of real jaw-clenching temperatures to people living further north.
The National Weather Service said Friday that temperatures in the Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts could seem like a frosty minus 35 degrees, parts of New Hampshire and Maine could ex- perience minus 45 and Vermont’s mountain regions could feel like minus 50 degrees.
“It’s definitely cold and the type of bone-chilling cold that happens every few years,” said Dan Hofmann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Baltimore.
The weather service is- sued wind chill warnings for various days this weekend for parts of Vermont, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Maine and New Hampshire.
Fast forward to early next week, though, and more seasonable weather across the region is expected to return with temperatures in the high 30s and near 40s.