When I took the dog out at 6 this morning, the temperature was 8.6 degrees. All I can say is, so much for global warming:
A fierce blast of winter weather spread into the mid-Atlantic yesterday, bringing some of the coldest conditions to Washington in years and claiming the life of an elderly Silver Spring woman who wandered from her home and perished outdoors overnight.
The National Weather Service said today could be the coldest day in Washington since Jan. 10, 2004, when the mercury dipped to 8, which was the chilliest reading in the past decade. Such conditions can cause frostbite and hypothermia, forecasters said.
Temperatures dipped to an overnight low of 11 degrees at Reagan National Airport, and remained there just before sunrise, with a below zero wind chill. The forecast high for the day is 26. In Montgomery County, the Francis Scott Key Middle School in Silver Spring was closed because there was no heat in the building; Culpeper County schools were on a two hour delay in Virginia. The Sacred Heart School in the District was closed because of a broken heater.
As pipes burst in homes and furnaces faltered in some District schools, homeless shelters extended their hours and officials across the region scoured the streets to try to make sure no one else froze to death.
Temperatures hovered in the teens much of yesterday, with 20-mph gusts of wind making it dangerous to venture outside.
“It was just shockingly cold,” said Marcie Roth, who distributed leaflets in Rockville yesterday in single-digit windchills. “I had hand warmers, and the hand warmers were not warming the tips of my fingers.”
Gale warnings were in effect on the coast, from Maine to Virginia, as wind whipped up waves and freezing spray. The frigid temperatures and fierce winds — which gripped the nation from Georgia to the Dakotas — stung those who ventured out, drove birds to shelter in the lee of shrubs and rattled street signs and house shutters.
And there are reports that we’ll be getting snow tonight, up to two inches. It may have taken awhile, but winter is definiately here.
I’m sure the dog was pleased
All I will say is that it’s much easier to get the dog to take care of business when its 8.6 degrees, than when it’s 86 degrees.
[...] took long enough but, thanks to the cold wave that currently has us in it’s grips, we’ve finally gotten snow around here. The ferocious February cold snap turned snowy [...]