30 U.S. Cities Shiver in Record Cold Snap

Unseasonably cold weather chilled the East, Midwest, the Southwest and the Middle Atlantic states Friday, shattering or tying records in more than 30 cities.

Temperatures dropped to below freezing in a few places from western New York across western Pennsylvania to northern West Virginia, the National Weather Service reported.

The readings included 27 degrees at Franklinville, N. Y.; 28 degrees at Bradford, Pa., and 29 degrees at Thomas, W. Va.

Showers and thunderstorms doused the coastal sections of the Carolinas and Georgia and thunderstorms battered the New Orleans area, where 3.75 inches of rain fell in a six-hour period ending early Friday.

The cool air eased a heat spell over parts of the northern plains, but much of the plains, the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee valleys and Great Lakes region were left parched as a dry spell continued.