Deep Freeze Breaks Cold Weather Records
Howling winds and freezing temperatures are pummeling states across the nation.
Feb. 12, 2008 — -- Across much of the country, frigid winter weather is bringing the coldest temperatures on record, including a 40-below wind chill in parts of Minnesota.
From Duluth, Minn., where Lake Superior steams in subzero cold, to Rhode Island, temperatures are frozen in the single digits, or worse. In Chicago, meteorologists report it feels like 15 below with the wind chill.
"It's just brutally cold, absolutely brutally cold," said Chicago resident Judy Mosher.
The temperature fell to 40 below in Embarrass, Minn. That's just one degree above the all-time record in Minneapolis, 250 miles to the south, that was set in January 1888.
More than three feet of snow fell on Minetto, N.Y., Monday, paralyzing highway traffic and closing many schools between Buffalo and Syracuse.
Single-digit temperatures plus wind drove the windchill factor to nearly 20 below across much of upstate New York.
Howling winds and blowing drifts blinded commuters in Michigan and Indiana today, after a deep freeze brought single-digit temperatures all weekend long. Classes were canceled Monday at many schools across the state. One death in Michigan has been blamed on the weather.
South of the coldest air mass, freezing rain hit southwest Missouri, also making roads hazardous and closing schools. Several thousand lost electricity in the Springfield area when lines iced over and ice-covered limbs crashed onto power lines.
"It's treacherous," Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Dan Bracker said in Springfield.
As the precipitation moved eastward out of Missouri, the weather service posted winter storm and snow warnings for parts of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.
The piles of fresh snow have skiers delighted across the Midwest and Rockies.
"Last year we had five or six inches when we had snow. This year we have five or six feet," said Dennis Sheen, the general manager of Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin. Sheen says this season is on track to be his best yet.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
