Bitter Cold Snap to Ease in Time for Christmas

The Arctic onslaught of record low temperatures that has plagued much of the nation for 10 days sent another thrust across the border Thursday, closing hundreds of schools from Montana to the Eastern Seaboard and threatening Texas’ citrus crop.

But the double wallop of frigid temperatures and high polar winds blamed for more than 40 deaths nationwide was expected to slacken after today, promising a Christmas with more seasonable temperatures, forecasters said.

“We’re going to moderate right into Christmas,” said National Weather Service forecaster Steve Kahn in Chicago. “Temperatures have stopped falling--they are going to rebound a little bit.”

That was small comfort across the Midwest and West, where wind chills Thursday--the day that winter officially began--dipped to as low as 83 below in North Dakota and more than 70 below in Minnesota and Nebraska.

In Havre, Mont., an overnight low of 43 below broke a record for the day set in 1884. Chicago set a record with a 13 below reading, colder than in 1872, when the previous record of 12 below zero was set.

Record lows recorded Thursday also included 20 below zero in Omaha; 19 below in Dubuque, Iowa; 17 below in Des Moines, Iowa, and 7 below in Topeka, Kan.

Weather officials warned that the subzero temperatures, combined with stinging wind, could cause frostbite in a matter of minutes.

“This is just about as bad as it can get in Iowa,” said weather service forecaster Scott Truett in Des Moines. “Especially this time of year.”

It was so cold in Minnesota that Northern States Power Co. took the unprecedented step of asking customers to curtail their use of electricity by taking such measures as turning off their Christmas lights.

The temperature in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area ranged to 30 below zero without the wind-chill factor and 80 below with it.

Chicago police opened station doors to the homeless who were seeking shelter while waiting for vans to take them to city-operated warming centers. At least 10 people have died of exposure in the Chicago area since the cold snap began, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Among the deaths elsewhere were two elderly Pittsburgh-area women whose space heaters, their only source of heat, were not enough to withstand the cold, officials said. “Basically it means they froze to death,” Deputy Coroner James Gregris said.

By mid-morning Thursday, hundreds of schools had been closed in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and New York state. Some school officials said they did not want young children waiting for buses or walking to school.

“We thought it might be dangerous,” said Jean Kennedy, a spokeswoman for a school district in the St. Louis area.

Business was good at towing companies and auto parts stores, as customers sought out batteries, thermostats and engine heaters. Tammy Collett of Council Bluffs, Iowa, said she called 10 towing firms for assistance, but only one would send a truck.

“They said they were too busy or they wouldn’t come out, and they were all 24-hour towing companies,” she said. “It was not very pleasant, that’s for sure.”

In Minot, N.D., Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train came to a halt as fuel froze in its engine, stranding about 300 passengers in area motels overnight.

Texas forecasters feared a worse cold snap than the December, 1983, freeze that virtually wiped out the Rio Grande Valley’s citrus crop, killing hundreds of thousands of orange and grapefruit trees. Temperatures were expected to drop into the lower 20s today and Saturday.