Big chill leaves 220 MILLION facing below freezing temperatures for New Year’s: Wind chill drops as low as -89 DEGREES and turns boiling water into ‘snow’ as bitter winter conditions sweep the nation
Americans will see morning low temperatures in the single digits or below zero
Atop Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak, the temperature has hit -34 degrees with a -89 degree wind chill
Weather observers tested the cold on the summit by pouring out boiling water, which immediately turned into ‘snow’
In Erie, Pennsylvania, a storm dumped more than 65 inches of snow in a span of four days
Forecasters warned of hypothermia and frostbite from arctic air settling in over the central US and spreading east
In South Dakota, an 83-year-old woman died from exposure to the cold after crashing her car on Saturday
MARY KEKATOS
DAILYMAIL.COM
29 December 2017
Bitter cold weather has taken hold of much of the northern US as about 220 million face below freezing temperatures as New Year’s weekend kicks off.
Heading into the holiday on Friday, Americans were seeing morning low temperatures in the single digits or below zero.
And atop Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak, the temperature has hit negative 34 degrees, with a negative 89 degree wind chill as boiling water was seen turning into ‘snow’.
An arctic wind chill has taken hold of much of the US west of the Rockies. In Erie, Pennsylvania, a storm dumped more than 65 inches of snow in a span of four days.
‘This is a crippling snow event,’ Zach Sefcovic, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland, said on Wednesday.
‘They are no strangers to snow in that part of the state, but this much snow in that short a time is just unprecedented.’
Sabrina Ram drove into Erie on Christmas Eve to visit her parents just as the snow began to fall. Ram, who lives in suburban Washington, DC, and her father spent five hours on Christmas and two hours on Tuesday clearing the driveway.
‘In DC, we’d be out of commission for weeks,’ Ram said. ‘Things here are pretty much back to normal now.’
The winter blast in Erie was caused by cold Arctic air moving over the lake, which had relatively mild water temperatures, forecasters said.
A reinforcing surge of arctic air traveling south from Canada has been the cause of a great deal of frigid conditions.
Weather observers atop the Northeast’s highest peak say the temperature has hit negative 34 degrees, a record for the day.
Adam Gill, of the Mount Washington Observatory, said the previous record of negative 31 degrees was set in 1933.
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