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 Snow expected to accumulate to 3 feet (1 meter) deep was falling
in upstate New York near Watertown, and snow already blanketing
South Dakota was whipped by winds into a "ground blizzard" that made
driving treacherous, said meteorologist Dan Petersen of the National
Weather Service.
The coldest place in the country on Thursday was Estcourt Station,
the northernmost point in Maine, with temperatures of minus 38
degrees F (minus 39 C), he said.
Records were broken from Montpelier, Vermont, at minus 20 F (minus
29 C), to Jackson, Kentucky, with minus 1 F (minus 18 C), he said.
Snow flurries were reported as far south as Jacksonville, Florida.
"It's the face, it's like being hit with a sheet of ice," Bart
Adlam, 40, president of U.S. yogurt supplier siggi's, said as he
rode a bike through Times Square on his way to work at 8 a.m. in New
York. The wind chill there made 9 degrees F (minus 12 C) feel like 2
below (minus 18 C), according to Weather.com.
 Cold bitter enough to freeze fuel lines on school buses forced
schools to close from Portland, Maine, to Chicago. Train rails
cracked by the cold caused delays for commuters in Washington, D.C.
Weather also hung up U.S. air travel with 1,937 delays and 515
cancellations by mid-afternoon, according to FlightAware.com.
In Pittsburgh, two baby African penguins were moved indoors at the
National Aviary, where the endangered animals that are native to
South Africa will remain until temperatures rise.
Frostbite could set in with just 15 minutes' exposure to the frigid
air, the weather service said, advising people to keep pets indoors.
'THREE PAIRS OF SOCKS'
In Boston, incoming Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker shortened
the outdoor portion of his inauguration ceremony out of concern it
was too cold for spectators, a spokesman said.
"It's cold but I'm bundled up," said Willie Council, 65, a homeless
man rocking back and forth to stay warm on K Street, Washington's
corridor for lobbyists and lawyers. "I’ve got on three pairs of
socks but I don’t have any boots.”
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Chicago's biggest homeless shelter filled its beds to capacity,
putting some of the overflow crowd on mattresses on the floor while
others spent the night on the streets.
A man was found dead in a portable toilet on the Northwest Side of
Chicago on Wednesday, according to police. The cause of 51-year-old
Marek Bobak's death was cold exposure and coronary artery
atherosclerosis, the Cook County Medical Examiner determined on
Thursday.
Even sledding hills around Chicago and ice-skating rinks in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota, were shut down because of risk of wind chill,
while Maine's Sugarloaf Mountain closed ski trails because of
"Arctic conditions."
Temperatures also plummeted to an uncharacteristic 10 to 15 degrees
F (minus 12 C to minus 9 C) overnight across the Gulf Coast. In
South Carolina, the odd snowflake on the beach drew excited
observers outside to watch in wonder.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York, Scott Malone in Boston,
Mary Wisniewski in Chicago, Todd Epp in Sioux Falls, Ian Simpson in
Washington, Dave Sherwood in Maine and Harriet McLeod in Charleston,
S.C.; Writing by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Bill Trott, Eric Walsh
and Peter Cooney)
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