Bone-Chilling Cold Sweeps Northern Plains

Residents of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas woke up to bone-chilling weather today--a 50-degree drop in some areas from the high temperatures a day before--and up to 6 inches of snow blanketed parts of Montana.

The temperatures sank into the 20s in these states, the National Weather Service reported, compared with highs in the low 70s the day before. But the air felt like between 10 and 15 degrees below zero along the northern border at the Montana communities of Cut Bank and Glasgow and in Dickinson, N.D.

Mostly Light Snow

The snow behind the cold front was mostly light, but between 3 and 6 inches blanketed the ground in the foothills of the Montana Rockies.

Elsewhere, Allentown, Pa., and Atlantic City, N.J., set new records with 25 degrees, bettering the 12-year-old mark by 1 degree. Baltimore tied the 26-year-old record with 29 degrees and Harrisburg, Pa., set a new mark with 27 degrees, breaking the 29-degree mark reached in 1950.

In Philadelphia, the commuters on the regional rail line experienced 15-minute delays because of frost and fallen leaves on the tracks.

Parts of West Virginia dropped into the teens, with Greenbank registering 13 degrees and Elkins 16 degrees.

Winds gusted to 52 m.p.h. at Scottsbluff, Neb., and to 49 m.p.h. at Norfolk, Neb.

Residents from northeastern North Dakota across northern Minnesota to northwest Wisconsin could expect up to 3 inches of snow by late today, weather officials said.

With a low pressure system over Minnesota, strong southerly winds covered the upper and middle Mississippi Valley and the upper Great Lakes, where gale warnings were in effect.