Reporter Query
Right now, it’s 23 degrees in Lewiston with some snow flakes floating around. That feels balmy compared to what’s coming (sub-zero wind chills). So how are you doing?
Weather reporter Mark LaFlamme (mlaflamme@sunjournal.com) is doing a story about how you’re coping. Are you taking extra measures to keep yourself, your car or your home in working order? Does this affect how local businesses or agencies are doing their work?
A strong Arctic cold front moved across the region with temperatures falling throughout the day and commuters, schools and outdoor workers slowing down, girding up, and taking precautions.
Vermont public safety officials warned residents to limit their time outdoors at least through Friday with dangerous wind chills of minus-35 in the forecast. Some schools and government offices closed early in upstate New York ahead of lake-effect snow expected to bring 1 to 2 feet.
In western Pennsylvania, weather-related crashes closed three different stretches of Interstate 80. Blowing snow in Syracuse, New York, slowed the morning commute on Interstate 81 to a crawl.
“It doesn’t bother me as long as I go slow,” commuter Dawn Coyer, who lives north of Syracuse, told Time Warner Cable News. “But I wasn’t driving and she (the driver) said ‘No, we’re not doing this.'”
Elsewhere in upstate New York, along the Lake Ontario shore, wind gusts approached 70 mph and the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning effective through early Friday morning. Lake-effect snow was accompanied by winds up to 50 mph causing whiteout conditions in some places.
In parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine overnight, the frigid weather and wind will cause temperatures to dip below zero as winds gust up to 30 mph and chills near minus-20.
“You are talking about 30 degrees below normal highs. That is pretty darn cold,” said weather service meteorologist James Brown in Maine. “This is pretty much a piece of Arctic air that came off the North Pole and came into New England.”
Forecasters said a storm will follow the frigid temperatures, bringing chances for snow, sleet and freezing rain across much of the U.S.
While it sounded pretty grim, some winter weather veterans took it all in stride.
Jon Asmund, a state bridge construction superintendent in New Hampshire, swears by fleece-lined pants. “They do wonders,” he said.
He and his crew were working on a bridge not far from Hampton Beach along the seacoast, dealing with 50 mph wind. “It’s still painful, but we make it through the day.”
Some 90 miles north, Will Irvine was hoping to finish up inspection work on a covered bridge in Conway and avoid the low temperatures and strong wind coming Friday. Some of his crew members were suspended underneath the structure for several hours.
“You manipulate your work schedule for whatever Mother Nature’s going to give you, because you’re not going to change her,” he said.
As the arctic air tracked northeast, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy planned to activate the state’s severe cold-weather protocol Thursday night, calling for state police and other agencies to work with shelters and community groups to protect vulnerable residents. Malloy also encouraged communities to open warming centers.
Wind chill advisories enveloped much of the Midwest and Northeast on Thursday. And the winter weather conditions claimed at least two lives. A snow and ice-covered road was a factor in a crash Wednesday night that killed a passenger in a car that lost control and spun into a snowplow in Springport, New York. A 34-year-old woman died of hypothermia in St. Paul, Minnesota. She was found Monday, when temperatures dropped to 3 below zero and wind chills were minus 19.
Below-normal temperatures are expected this weekend and into Monday across the entire northern half of the country, from the Pacific Northwest to Maine and as far south as Oklahoma, Arkansas and Virginia, according to the Climate Prediction Center.
Up to half a foot of snow could fall from the Upper Mississippi Valley to the Northeast on Friday and Saturday, and areas east of the Appalachian Mountains could see freezing rain and sleet on Saturday.
Three day forecast
Thursday: Partly sunny Chance for snow showers and squalls. Becoming windy. Colder with highs in the 20s. Wind chills 0 to 15. Snow squalls become more numerous at night.
Thursday night: Snow squalls, becoming very windy and cold. Lows -10 to 5. W to NW winds increasing to 20 to 30 mph with gusts 30 to 40 mph. Wind chills will dip to 20 to 30 below late.
Friday: Mostly sunny, very cold, and windy. Dangerous wind chills early. Highs 8 to 15. Wind chills 20 to 30 below around the early morning commute. Wind chills will improve to zero to 10 above during the afternoon.
Details: Thursday is cold but expect Friday to be dangerously cold
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