DHAKA: A bitter, record-setting cold air mass kept its icy grip on much of the central and eastern U.S. on Friday, bringing subzero temperatures and showing no sign of relief next week for winter-weary residents from Florida to New England.
At least 72 record low temperatures were set Friday morning, all the way from Marquette, Mich. (minus 26 degrees) to Miami (42 degrees).
In Minnesota, the community of Cotton posted an overnight low of minus 42 degrees, 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.
Lynchburg, Va., plummeted to minus 11 degrees Friday morning, setting a new all-time record low, the Weather Channel reported. Flint, Mich., tied its all-time record low of minus 25, while Cleveland set an all-time February low of minus 17.
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, it was warmer in Anchorage than it was in Atlanta, where the temperature bottomed out at 15 degrees this morning.
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 latest 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.
Sleet and freezing rain is expected from Missouri to northern Georgia, changing over to rain 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," sads AccuWeather Meteorologist Mark Paquette,
A second wave of cold air is expected to flow out of Canada to the southeast at midweek, bring another round of low temperatures, although not as extreme as this week.
AccuWeather.com says the waves of cold ar will "prolong winter or delay spring weather, depending on your perspective."
Temperatures in the first week of March will be less cold, but still slightly below normal in parts of the Midwest and much of the East, according to AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.
Source: usatoday.com
BDST: 1345 HRS, FEB 21, 2015
