Northeast Hit by Snow; South in Deep Freeze

A storm dumped up to 6 inches of snow Thursday on Vermont’s Green Mountains, and the state’s biggest ski area opened for business. As much as 4 inches of snow fell in upstate New York.

Cold Canadian air, meanwhile, reached deep into the South, dropping Thursday morning temperatures to record levels for the date at 41 cities in 16 states, including Florida and Alabama.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service said Vermont’s snowfall ranged from a dusting over most mountain areas to 6 inches at Jay Peak in the northern part of the state.

The snow was a welcome sight to the state’s ski industry.

Hopes It’s a Good Omen

“We’re always enthusiastic about snow,” said Candy Moot, associate director of the Vermont Ski Areas Assn. “I hope this bodes well for a good, strong season.”

A spokesman for Vermont’s biggest ski area, Killington, said hundreds of skiers lined up to use the slopes as it opened for business on a limited basis Thursday.

“We have several hundred people, believe it or not, who are skiing today,” Killington spokesman Dick Courcelle said. “There was a line when the lift started turning this morning.”

The same storm frosted the extreme northern reaches of New York state, with 4 inches of snow falling in Malone and Chasm Falls and 2 inches reported at Ellenburg Depot and Browns Falls. Higher elevations in Albany and Rensselaer counties also reported up to 1 1/2 inches of snow.

Police said the snow made area highways slick, but there were no traffic accidents, power disruptions or other problems attributed to the storm.

At least 41 cities in 16 states across the eastern half of the country from the Canadian border to Florida set or tied record low temperatures Thursday morning.

Thirty-six of the records involved temperatures at or below the freezing mark, as an overnight frost spread into Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas, as well as hitting the traditionally colder states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia.

The records ranged from 18 degrees at Elkins, W. Va., and Marquette, Mich., to 34 at Birmingham, Ala., and 38 in Tallahassee, Fla., and Wilmington, N. C.