Bone-chilling cold returns to the Midwest in the wake of a storm that soaked the East Coast

[December 13, 2024]  By PATRICK WHITTLE and DAVID SHARP

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Frigid weather returned to the Upper Midwest on Thursday after a storm that swept up the East Coast delivered a blow to New England, packing powerful gusts that knocked out power along with a deluge of rain and warming temperatures that washed away snow and dampened ski resorts.

The Upper Midwest saw unseasonably cold early Thursday, with parts of North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin experiencing wind chills well below zero degrees F (minus 17.8 degrees Celsius). The National Weather Service received a report of a low temperature of minus 27 degrees F ( minus 32.7 degrees C) southwest of Inger, Minnesota. States to the south, including South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa, saw wind chills in the single digits Thursday morning.

In Chicago, gusts of more than 40 mph (64 kph) Thursday coupled with a low temperature of 4 F (minus 15.5 C) at O’Hare International Airport to create a stinging wind chill of minus 28 F (minus 33.3 C). City officials designated more than two dozen community and senior centers to be used as warming shelters and urged the public to avoid unnecessary trips outside.

The weather service also issued freezing spray warnings on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, with subzero temperatures and high winds resulting in up to an inch of ice per hour accumulating on ships and smaller vessels.

On Wednesday, an atmospheric river transported moisture northward from the tropics and brought heavy rain.

The city of Portland, Maine, got 2.33 inches (5.92 centimeters) of rain Wednesday, breaking a record of 2.01 inches (5.1 centimeters) for the date set in 1887, the National Weather Service said.

Utility workers were deployed to handle power outages after winds peaked Wednesday night into Thursday. Nearly 90,000 customers in Maine had lost power as of Thursday morning, according to poweroutage.us.

A deepening low pressure system was responsible for winds that lashed the region, said Derek Schroeter, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. Some areas in Maine had wind gusts of over 50 mph (80 kph).

Forecasters were concerned about bombogenesis, or a “bomb cyclone,” marked by a rapid intensification over a 24-hour period, but the storm did not appear to meet the criteria for a bomb cyclone, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jerry Combs in Gray, Maine.

Jen Roberts, co-owner of Onion River Outdoors sporting goods store in Montpelier, Vermont, lamented that a five-day stretch of snowfall that lured ski customers into the store was being washed way, underscoring the region’s fickle weather.

“But you know, this is New England," Roberts said. "We know this is what happens.”

Ski resort operators called it bad luck as the holidays approach.

A couple push a baby carriage past steam released in the air as an Arctic blast brings single-digit temperatures with wind chills below zero on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

“We don’t say the ‘r-word’ around here. It’s a forbidden word,” said Jamie Cobbett, marketing director at Waterville Valley Resort in New Hampshire, which was pelted by rain on Wednesday. “We’re getting some moist wet weather today. We’ll put the mountain back together."

Skier Marcus Caston was waterlogged but shrugged it off. “The conditions are actually pretty good. The rain is making the snow nice and soft. It’s super fun,” he said while skiing at Vermont's Sugarbush.

More seasonal low temperatures suitable for snowmaking were returning Thursday.

New England wasn’t the only region experiencing wild weather. Snow fell early Thursday around Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, and heavy lake-effect snow was expected through Thursday in parts of Michigan.

Areas east of Lake Ontario in northern New York were warned of 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 meters) of lake-effect snow as well as wind gusts of up to 45 mph (72 kph), with “near whiteout conditions at times,” according to the National Weather Service. Some schools and libraries in the area, historically one of the snowiest in the U.S., closed early as the wind plastered fresh snow to the sides of trees and snowplows rumbled.

A mail carrier, his head tucked against the frosty gusts, waved to a plow as it passed. Trump flags in the heavily Republican villages crackled and popped in the winds.

Areas south of Buffalo, New York, were again hit Thursday with heavy lake-effect snow, with some locations reporting more than a foot of accumulation. Treacherous driving conditions prompted two small towns to issue driving bans, and the Buffalo Bills NFL franchise canceled practice Thursday due to the weather. That area and those around Watertown, New York, could see up to three feet (almost one meter) of snow through Friday, according to forecasters. The region has already been hit with lake-effect snow after Thanksgiving and in early December.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in several counties in anticipation of heavy snowfall expected off of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

New England’s weather brought the biggest variety, with the storm bringing a little bit of everything. It started early Wednesday with freezing rain. Then came a deluge of regular rain and warming temperatures — topping 50 F (10 C) in Portland, for example.

Alex Hobbs, a Boston college student, hoped that the weather wouldn't interfere with her plans to return home to San Francisco soon. "I’m a little worried about getting delays with heavy wind and rain, possibly snow,” she said Wednesday.

All contents © copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved