Blowing snow and frigid temperatures pound nation

MINNEAPOLIS — Arctic air extended its grip Wednesday with below-zero temperatures stretching from Montana to northern New England and frost nipping the Gulf Coast.

It was so cold Wednesday in northern Minnesota — 38 below zero at International Falls, with the wind chill during the night estimated at 50 below — that a couple of ski areas closed for the day.

Schools from Iowa to Ohio opened late so kids would not have to be out in the coldest part of the morning. Some schools closed.

The cold wave also bulged into the Northeast, abruptly dropping temperatures in New York state into the single digits and below zero — after Tuesday's readings in the 30s, the National Weather Service said. Thermometers read 8 below at Massena, on the St. Lawrence River, with a wind chill of minus 25 degrees.

Commuters in Albany, N.Y., faced a chill of 6 degrees, with brisk wind making it feel like 15 below zero, but some people claimed they didn't mind.

"I'm a cold weather fan," said Jeff Plant of Colonie, N.Y., as he sat reading a newspaper at an Albany coffee shop. "I like to see some cold weather in the winter." Later, he said, he planned to go for a walk "to get some sun."

Near the shore of Lake Superior, Ironwood, Mich., fell to 25 below zero around midnight, then warmed to an 8 a.m. reading of only 8 below, the National Weather Service said.

Farther south, morning temperatures were just in the 20s from Texas to Georgia, and along the Gulf Coast the weather service reported a low of just 28 at Mobile, Ala.

The cold was accompanied by ice and snow that glazed pavement and was blamed for numerous traffic accidents Tuesday from Minnesota to Indiana.

The bitter cold also was blamed for at least one death Tuesday. A 51-year-old man died of exposure in northern Wisconsin after wandering from his Hayward home.

The cold kept towing and auto repair companies busy across Wisconsin, along with public works crews dealing with frozen pipes and water mains.

"We're working basically 24 hours a day with broken mains," said Dave Goldapp with Milwaukee Public Works.

As the coldest air pushed toward the east, there was a slight improvement on the northern Plains, where Grand Forks, N.D., posted a low Wednesday of 24 below zero, up from Tuesday's record low of 37 below. In Minnesota, International Falls dropped to minus 40 on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the wind chill hit 58 below zero at the northern Minnesota town of Hallock, but Mark Johnson said that once temperatures get to a certain point, the degrees don't matter. For example, he said, 38 degrees below zero isn't much different than 24 below.

"We're kind of acclimated to it up here up in this country," he said. "Each year, sometime during the winter, it's going to get to this point. Just as long as it doesn't stay like this for a whole month, you can deal with the day-to-day getting through it."

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Associated Press writer Roger Petterson in New York City and Jessica M. Pasko in Albany, N.Y., also contributed to this report.

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