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Record cold freezes entire eastern U.S.
Doug Stanglin and Doyle Rice, USA TODAY 7:25 a.m. PST February 20, 2015




A bitter, record-setting cold air mass is keeping its icy grip on much of the central and eastern U.S., bringing subzero temperatures and showing no sign of relief next week for winter-weary residents from Florida to New England.

At least 60 record low temperatures were set Friday morning, all the way from Marquette, Mich. (-26 degrees) to Miami (42 degrees).

In Minnesota, the community of Cotton posted an overnight low of 42 below zero, without the wind-chill factor, the National Weather Service reports. In western Pennsylvania, temperatures dipped to minus 18 degrees in some areas.

"An eddy of the polar vortex is leading to the coldest weather of this recent cold spell, creating a deep layer of bitterly cold air, along with gusty winds," said meteorologist David Hamrick of the weather service's Weather Prediction Center.

Washington's Reagan National Airport registered a 6-degree low on Friday, beating a 119-year-old record low for the day of 8 degrees.

New York City's Central Park dipped to 2 degrees, breaking a 1950 mark of 7 degrees.

Baltimore's airport posted a low of 2 degrees, besting the previous record of 4 degrees set in 1979.

Amazingly, at 25 degrees, tt was warmer in Anchorage than it was in Atlanta, where the temperature bottomed out at 15 degrees this morning.

Commuters wait at the Arlington Heights, Ill. Metra
Commuters wait at the Arlington Heights, Ill. Metra train station as a cold snap took hold in the suburbs of Chicago on Feb. 19, 2015. (Photo: Joe Lewnard, Daily Herald, AP)
After subzero overnight lows from Illinois to western Virginia, highs on Friday are expected to struggle to get out of the teens, according to the weather service.

Nor is winter ready to give up for the year as February comes to a close. The weather service says the newest band of Arctic air could plunge parts of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic into deep freezes that haven't been felt since the mid-1990s.

As the cold air mass settles in, more moisture from the Gulf of Mexico is forecast to set the stage for what the weather service calls an "ice event" across portions of the Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys into the early weekend.


People from New England to the Gulf Coast are coping with some of the coldest temperatures their regions have seen in about 20 years. (Feb. 20) AP

Sleet and freezing rain is expected from Missouri to northern Georgia, changing over to rain on Saturday. On the East coast, snow will change to a wintry mix and eventually to rain for many areas of the mid-Atlantic.

"We are very concerned about the added weight triggering a new round of roof collapses in New England and parts of upstate New York," say AccuWeather Meteorologist Mark Paquette,

Contributing: Associated Press