2008 Woodie Awards
Arctic blast closes schools, contributes to heavy snowfall from northern Plains to Northeast
Roger Petterson, Associated Press
Issue date: 2/7/07 Section: News
(AP) - A bone-chilling Arctic cold wave with temperatures as low as 42 below zero shut down schools for thousands of youngsters Monday, sent homeless people into shelters and put car batteries on the disabled list from the northern Plains across the Great Lakes.
The cold was accompanied by snow that was measured in feet in parts of upstate New York.
"Anybody in their right mind wouldn't want to be out in weather like this," Lawrence Wiley, 57, said at the crowded Drop Inn Center homeless shelter where he has been living in Cincinnati. Monday lows in the area were in the single digits.
With temperatures near zero and a wind chill of 25 below, school districts across Ohio canceled classes. "We have a lot of kids that walk to school. We didn't think it was worth the risk," Sandusky City Schools Superintendent Bill Pahl said.
It was so cold that Toledo, Ohio _ 5 above zero at noon, up from 4 below _ even closed its outdoor ice rink. "The irony is not lost on us," said city spokesman Brian Schwartz.
With a temperature of 12 below zero and wind chill of 31 below, Wisconsin's largest school district, Milwaukee Public Schools, also shut down, idling some 90,000 children. In upstate New York 34,000 kids got the day off in Rochester because of near-zero temperatures. Schools also closed in parts of Michigan. A few schools closed even in Minnesota, where February cold is the norm and people are accustomed to coping.
In northern Minnesota, the temperature crashed to 42 below Monday morning at Embarrass, 38 below at Hallock and 30 below at International Falls, the weather service said.
Veterinarian Wade Himes wasn't too concerned as he ate breakfast at the Shorelunch Cafe in International Falls.
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