'Extremely dangerous' cold grips Northeast
Thursday, January 15, 2004 Posted: 12:10 PM EST (1710
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The Northeastern United States faced more bitter cold and high winds Thursday, with forecasters warning of "extremely dangerous" wind chills as low as 45 degrees below zero in eastern Massachusetts.
"These values can produce frostbite in just 10 or 15 minutes," a National Weather Service advisory said. "If you don't have to travel or be outside late tonight or early tomorrow, then stay indoors."
In Maine, where projected highs ranged from below zero to the high single digits, Gov. John Baldacci declared a state of emergency in hopes of convincing federal highway regulators to allow longer driving hours for truckers carrying fuel oil.
"These conditions threaten public health and safety and endanger public property if fuel oil cannot be delivered to Maine homes and businesses," Baldacci's declaration said.
About 20 coffee-drinkers were crammed into a coffee shop in Portland, Maine, on Thursday morning, according to server Jamie Deering. "It's really cold, I mean, it's going down to 15 below at night," Deering said. "I didn't even take my trash out last night and my car is frozen."
Three inches of snow was expected in Thursday in Boston where the forecast high was 5 degrees. The city's largest homeless shelter, which provides 700 beds, was packed Wednesday night.
But one woman on a Boston street said area residents know how to deal with that type of weather: "Dress in layers, keep moving and just try to have that old, good New England character," she said.
Business was off Thursday at a Waffle House restaurant in Tewkesbury, Massachusetts, said cook Sandra Starke. "It's awful, very cold," she said. "We just got a dusting [of snow] but it's so cold nobody wants to come out."
Record daily low temperatures were recorded in Boston and in Providence, Rhode Island, on Wednesday, and forecasters expected the coldest portion of a wave of Arctic air to move across the region Thursday.
New Hampshire's Mount Washington Observatory, which boasts of having "The world's worst weather," recorded temperatures of 28 degrees below zero Fahrenheit on Thursday morning with a wind chill of 71 degrees below zero.
A bundled-up Jenny Martin heads to school in Burlington, Vermont, on Thursday.
"It actually very wonderful to be up here, to just be able to experience the weather extremes here that Mother Nature throws at you," said meteorologist Tim Markle from a weather station on the mountain. "A lot of people don't like the cold, but we're loving it up here."
Bitter cold didn't appear to cool political spirits ahead of the January 27 New Hampshire primary. A standing-room-only crowd attended a Manchester rally for Democratic candidate Sen. Joseph Lieberman on Thursday morning. A few hundred supporters attended a similar event Wednesday for Democratic candidate Wesley Clark. And Wednesday events in support of rivals Howard Dean and Sen. John Kerry also were well-attended, despite the weather.
New York is under a winter weather advisory and wind chill warning, and the city could see up to 6 inches of snow early in the day. Highs are forecast near 15 degrees, lows -- with the wind chill -- feeling like 15 to 30 degrees below zero.
A winter storm warning is in effect for Philadelphia, which could get 6 inches of snow. Temperatures were forecast to range from a high of 19 to a low of 5 degrees.
And snow up to three inches is expected to fall on Washington, D.C., Thursday, with high temperatures near 25 and lows around 18 degrees.
CNN's Adaora Udoji, Laura Bernardini and CNN.com writer Thom Patterson contributed to this report.
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