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Let it snow — maybe even in Florida as cold wave tightens grip on USA
Jan. 2, 2018

A winter storm threatened to dump wind-driven snow and ice from Maine into Florida as a fierce cold wave's unrelenting grip on the nation showed no signs of easing, forecasters warned Tuesday.

Schools were shuttered and records shattered as relief for more than 100 million Americans remained several days away. If that wasn't enough, the National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch from Massachusetts to North Florida.

A freeze watch was in effect Tuesday night for Lake City, Fla., 60 miles west of Jacksonville. A wintry mix was forecast for Wednesday. The snow, wind and travel disruptions will roll north Wednesday night through Thursday night.

Maine could see a foot of snow and hurricane-force winds, AccuWeather forecast. And the cold isn't going away.

“After a brief moderation from the cold at midweek, more bitter cold and downright harsh air will return,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Kyle Elliott said.

The next air mass will be up to 10 degrees colder than the front that froze the Northeast the last few days, Elliott said.

The extended cold wave, which began creeping across the nation before Christmas, enveloped a swath of the country from Montana and Texas to the East Coast. The Southeast wasn't spared — Atlanta awoke to 13 degrees on Tuesday and barely broke above freezing later in the day.

The weather already has been deadly. In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office said the bodies of two men found outdoors Sunday showed signs of hypothermia. In Bismarck, N.D., police said cold weather "may have been a factor" in the death of a 52-year-old man whose body was found lying in the snow.

In Indiana, the 30,000 students in the Indianapolis school system were kept home because of "dangerous weather conditions." The temperature at 7 a.m. was -11 degrees with a wind chill mark below -20 degrees.

Cincinnati's 35,000 students had their holiday break extended at least a day when authorities closed the schools because of the cold. Other districts in Ohio, including Canton, shut schools for the day.

Boston schools soldiered on, but some nearby districts such as Everett, Mass., shut down for the day; others delayed opening a couple hours. On Saturday, Boston could challenge its lowest maximum temperature ever recorded for the date — 7 degrees, in 1896, AccuWeather said.

In South Dakota, Aberdeen hit -32 degrees on New Year’s Day, smashing a record that stood for 99 years. In Nebraska, Omaha's 15-below 0 degrees on Sunday broke a record dating to 1884.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio kicked off his second term Monday with an outdoor swearing-in ceremony and temperatures in the teens. It may not get that warm on Saturday.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/01/02/schools-close-records-fall-amid-killer-cold-wave/995163001/