Bitter Cold, Lake Effect Snow in East

[CaptinCrunch]

Bitter Cold, Lake Effect Snow in East
8AM EST, January 7, 2003

Frigid air continued to take hold in the
eastern half of the country with many
areas seeing dangerously cold wind
chills, while lake effect was blanketing
localized areas with more than a foot of
snow.

The coldest readings on Wednesday
morning were once again across the
northern Plains and upper Midwest. A
WeatherBug live sensor in Hill City, MN
plummeted to 7 degrees below zero
early Wednesday.

Readings as cold as 16 below zero
were reported in eastern Montana.
Temperatures in the teens were
reported all the way to central Alabama
and Georgia with subfreezing
temperatures in the New Orleans and
Tallahassee, FL areas.

Below zero wind chills were quite
common from the northern Plains and
Great Lakes to the central and northern
Appalachians. A WeatherBug live
sensor in Elderton in western
Pennsylvania reported 7 degrees with
steady winds of 18 mph early
Wednesday, yielding a wind chill of 12
below zero.

Relative to the chill earlier this week,
milder conditions were being
experienced in much of the middle of
the country. A WeatherBug live sensor
in Lincoln, Nebraska reported 13
degrees early Wednesday, 23 degrees
milder than Tuesday`s readings at the
same time.

This moderation in temperatures is
expected to slowly spread toward the
eastern seaboard by the weekend.
While the vast majority of the east was
dry, lake effect snow was having a big
impact impact in localized areas. The
bitter cold air mass flowing across the
relatively mild lakes was helping to
condense any available moisture in the
form of heavy, powdery snow.

Lake effect snow warnings remain in
effect for much of the upper peninsula
of Michigan, southwest lower Michigan,
extreme northeast Ohio, northwest
Pennsylvania, and extreme
southwestern New York as well as a
broad swath of the Tug Hill Plateau in
central New York.

Up to 30" of snow has been reported
east of Lake Ontario in Oswego County
of central New York with up to 21" east
of Lake Erie in Chautauqua County.
Final snowfall amounts could approach
4 feet in some areas there. Lighter
amounts of 2 to 8" were reported in
Michigan.

Snows are expected to taper off tonight
as high pressure builds over Ontario
and brings drier air and shifting winds.

[JCT777]

It's definitely cold here today. Started the morning at 15 degrees and expecting high temp of about 26. Wind chills will be below 10 degrees.

[Dave C]

With the milder weather in Dec. the lakes will be unfrozen much deeper into Jan. providing fuel for reinforcing shots of arctic air.

[stormraiser]

It's cold here south of Buffalo. I got 14.5 inches from the Lake Effect Snow, and it dropped to 11 last night. NOt sure what it is going to do tonight, but it is almost unbearable to this DC native

[Skywatch_NC]

"Peaked" out at 32F degrees for the high here today.