Weather News


Subzero temperatures bite Midwest, Northeast
POSTED: 8:01 a.m. EST, February 6, 2007
Story Highlights
• Arctic temperatures stretch from the Dakotas to New England
• Wind chill of 31 shuts down Milwaukee schools
• Temperature drops to 42 below in northern Minnesota
• Amtrak shuts down train service in parts of Illinois, New York
Adjust font size:
Decrease fontDecrease font
Enlarge fontEnlarge font

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- Homeless people packed shelters, students got a day off from school and drivers had to take their time as millions of people bundled up to meet subzero temperatures tied to at least six deaths.

The arctic cold front dipped into the nation from the Dakotas to New England. Water pipes burst and car batteries balked, forcing many businesses to close.

With a temperature of 12 below zero and wind chill of 31 below, Wisconsin's largest school district, Milwaukee Public Schools, shut down, idling some 90,000 children.

In upstate New York, 34,000 kids got the day off in Rochester because of temperatures near zero. Schools also closed in parts of Michigan and Illinois. A few schools closed even in Minnesota, where February cold is the norm and people usually cope. (Watch how dogsledders welcome the weather more than other Minnesotans Video)

Temperatures in Grand Forks, North Dakota, dipped to 31 below zero early Monday at the airport, 3 degrees lower than the records set in 1982 and 1967, the National Weather Service said. In northern Minnesota, the temperature crashed to 42 below Monday morning, the weather service said.

Among shelters trying to aid the homeless was Repairers of the Breach, a daytime shelter that has expanded its hours to stay open 24 hours a day since Friday as temperatures plunged below zero. The shelter doesn't have beds but provides blankets, pillows and meals for people who had nowhere else to go because other shelters were full, said MacCanon Brown, executive director.

Fifty-one people stayed Sunday night.

"Once this cold spell hit we were just so aware that there are so many people outside or in unheated places," Brown said. "We know that there would be a lot of deaths and terrible frostbite and hypothermia if we weren't open."

Without her center, "most of them would be living in bushes, unheated garages, abandoned buildings," Brown said. "They do come in our door. They feel very welcomed."

Amtrak shut down passenger service in parts of New York state, where the cold was accompanied by as much as 2 feet of snow. In Illinois, the cold forced Amtrak officials to cancel two trains scheduled to run between St. Louis and Chicago Monday evening.

In Kentucky, snowfall of up to 6 inches was forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday in the central and eastern parts of the state, capping several days of below-normal temperatures that dropped into single digits around the state.

In Illinois, where temperatures in the northwest part of the state dipped as low as 15 below, a slight reprieve was in sight for Tuesday.

"It's bitterly cold ... (but) the coldest of it is over," said Mark Ratzer, a senior forecaster with the weather service. He said a low-pressure system and accompanying cloud cover should ease bitter temperatures slightly.

Temperatures reached minus 10 at O'Hare International Airport Monday, and with the wind, it felt more like minus 30 in Chicago, Ratzer said.

Frozen pipes closed one downtown Chicago Starbucks for several hours Monday, and employee Jerry Berry, 24, said some customers stood in disbelief for several moments before moving on to the next shop a few blocks away.

"We couldn't brew coffee because it was so cold," Berry said. "(This is) the worst day to have to have a situation like this."

and i thought winter was here in the uk but no were near as bad as that. its cold -3 this morning and frosty . snow on the way maybe.

Same here..

Friends water pipe cracked open, now they're borrowing our water..

I Love New Mexico it's nice and warm and i can even run around in muscle shirts.........provided i don't get caught doing so.

god.. screw the homeless..

I have no respect for them.. AT ALL...


You guys rememer my car being broken into way back when? well it was a homeless person... and then I had my car parked near my Dealership where I work and I came out on my lunch to move it and there were two homeless people sitting on it shooting up.. like honestly... they can f*cking suffer.. it's not THAT hard to apply for a job.. get them started at freaking mcdonalds.. or better yet.. let them die..

Id ont care if they were "tricked" into selling their bodies to support their drug habits.. it's pathetic...


sorry..I'm angry :P

Damn vtec, i would of freaked out and wouldnt know what to do, i mean your dealing with people who have nothing to live for. What did you say to them?

I pretty much just bluntly said.. get the f*ck off of my car... and theyre like woah dude... whats wrong?

and i just repeated myself.. and told them if they dont get the f*ck off of it I'm calling the cops