A Wind Chill Advisory has been issued for our area, which will be in effect from 4 a.m. Monday to 10 a.m. Tuesday.This advisory was downgraded on Sunday from what was called a Wind Chill Watch.
11. O you who believe!
Remember the Favour of Allah unto you when some people desired (made a plan) to
stretch out their hands against you, but (Allah) withheld their hands from
you. So fear Allah. And in Allah let believers put their trust.
12. Indeed Allah took the
covenant from the Children of Israel (Jews), and We appointed twelve leaders
among them. And Allah said: "I am with you if you perform As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat) and give Zakat and believe in My Messengers;
honour and assist them, and lend to Allah a good loan. Verily, I will
remit your sins and admit you to Gardens under which rivers flow (in
Paradise). But if any of you after this, disbelieved, he has indeed gone
astray from the Straight Path."
13. So because of their breach of their covenant, We cursed them, and made
their hearts grow hard. They change the words from their (right) places
and have abandoned a good part of the Message that was sent to them. And you
will not cease to discover deceit in them, except a few of them. But
forgive them, and overlook (their misdeeds). Verily, Allah loves Al-Muhsinun (good-doers - see V.2:112). 5. Surah Al-Ma'idah (The Table Spread with Food)
The advisory is in effect for "locations in the northern tier of Pennsylvania," according to officials at the National Weather Service in Binghamton. The advisory also stated that with the high winds, (predicted to be between 10 and 15 mph) temperatures will reach as low as 20 degrees below zero.
"Air temperatures will drop to near zero just prior to daybreak Monday, with wind chills of 10 to 20 below. Temperatures will only struggle into the single digits to near 10 degrees during the day Monday, with wind chills as low as 5 to 15 below," states the advisory.
"Monday night and early Tuesday, temperatures will drop to 5 to 15 below, with wind chills of 10 to 20 below."
The National Weather Service reminds individuals to use caution and that children, pets, the elderly, and the homeless are especially vulnerable to the cold and may require extra care.
Such severe levels of wind chill as those expected put individuals and animals at risk for both frostbite and hypothermia if proper precautions are not taken. In case of an emergency, it is advisable to pack your vehicle with an emergency travel kit consisting of warm clothing and blankets, in the case you and your vehicle become stranded.
According to the National Weather Service, A Wind Chill Advisory is issued "when winds combine with very cold temperatures to create dangerous conditions for exposed skin." The wind chill is expected to be cold enough to cause frostbite in 30 minutes or less and could lead to hypothermia if precautions are not taken.
As is always the case with winter ice and temperatures well below freezing, it's recommended that you travel with caution and avoid driving if possible.
A wind chill advisory issued for Beaver County by the National Weather Service warns of wind chills as low as minus 15 degrees on Monday morning.
The advisory, in effect from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, says that air temperatures are expected to hover around zero, with a northwest wind of about 10 mph.
It also cautions that hypothermia and frostbite can occur at these temperatures if precautions are not taken.
Hypothermia has been blamed for the deaths of at least 22 people as an arctic blast, known as the Siberian Express, continues to push through the central and eastern parts of the U.S.
The toll includes 11 people in Tennessee, six in Pennsylvania, two in Illinois and one each in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Several other deaths suspected of being related to the cold are still being investigated.
In addition, Canadians are mourning the death of a three-year-old boy who wandered out into extreme cold in Toronto this week and was later found dead of exposure according to The Weather Network, Canada's equivalent of The Weather Channel.
"This week ranks among the most intense arctic outbreaks so far in the 21st century for the eastern U.S., and it is certainly one of the most impressively cold air masses we've seen this late in the winter season, coming only a month before the spring equinox," says weather.com senior meteorologist Nick Wiltgen.
At least 500 daily record lows have been broken since Sunday, according to figures from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center and the National Weather Service. More record lows are expected Saturday morning in the Northeast.
Alabama
Several Alabama schools announced Friday closures or delayed starts due to the bitter cold weather, AL.com reported.
"Ready Alabama Preparedness Day" was delayed due to severe weather, ironically, Alabama Public Radio said. The program educates students on preparing for severe weather situations through weather education sessions. The program was canceled to ensure the safety of students and first responders.
Counties across the state opened warming stations earlier this week to prepare for the arctic blast, ABC 33/40 reports.
The northwest Alabama town of Addison reached 3 degrees Thursday morning, the state's lowest reported temperature in the current outbreak.
Florida
Central Floridians, particularly those in Volusia County, stocked up on firewood Thursday before another round of cold moved in, News 13 reported.
Across the state, cities such as Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tallahassee saw record lows early Friday morning.
In response to the cold, officials in Brevard County opened up weather shelters for the homeless.
Southwest Florida, the leading producer of the country's fresh winter vegetables and fruits, geared up and prepared for the Friday morning's cold temperatures, News-Press.com reported. Currently, the region is looking at 30-32 degrees for only about two hours, which could mean minimal crop damage, according to Gene McAvoy, a multi-county vegetable crops specialist.
Georgia
Georgia cities shattered record cold temperatures for the date Thursday, including Atlanta, Athens, Columbus and Macon. Atlanta failed to reach freezing Thursday, hitting a high of only 28.
On Thursday morning, as many as 10,500 people were without power in the Atlanta area as thermometers plummeted well into the teens.
Various crops were taking some of the brunt of the freezing temperatures, and blueberry crops in Georgia and Florida may be some of the victims, said The Packer. The heart of blueberry country was slammed by freezing temperatures Thursday morning, prompting blueberry growers to assess possible crop damage. Brian Bocock, vice president of product management for Naturipe Farms LLC, told The Packer, "We have people in the fields in Georgia and Florida, and they will report later on. We should know the extent of damage, if any, sometime next week."
Illinois
Deborah Togtman, 49, died from a combination of hypertensive cardiovascular disease,hypothermia due to cold exposure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the Chicago Tribune reported.
A second hypothermia-related death was reported in Cook County after an unidentified male was found on a sidewalk, according to Frank Shufton, Cook County Morgue public information officer.
Widespread subzero lows were reported Thursday and Friday mornings. The lowest temperatures were in southern Illinois, where lows of 16 below zero were reported Thursday morning at Dam 52 on the Ohio River near Brookport as well as at the Carbondale Sewage Plant.
Indiana
Diana Smeester, 79, was found frozen outside of her home in Salem Heights after falling and not getting up, La Porte Sheriff John Boyd told The Weather Channel. Smeester was lying next to her vehicle, and it is unclear whether she fell in or out of it, said Boyd. Why she was unable to get up is still uncertain, as well.
The Hoosier State woke up to widespread subzero cold Friday. Angola reported a low of 18 below zero, the preliminary state low for Friday.
Trash pickup was suspended due to extremely low temperatures, leaving street corners piled withfrozen trash, WTHR-TV reported. Broken plumbing also plagued homes and businesses.
In Indianapolis, WTHR-TV said four puppies were found abandoned outside in the cold and snowThursday morning. A passing driver en route to work picked them up, and by that evening three of the four had been adopted.
Kentucky
WLEX-TV says Tensley Couch of Wayne County died while walking home in the bitter cold after his truck got stuck. He collapsed 50 feet from his front door due to cold and exertion, according to the report.
A low of 32 degrees below zero was recorded at a Kentucky Mesonet site near Richmond Friday morning, only 5 degrees away from the all-time Kentucky record low of -37 degrees Fahrenheit set in Shelbyville on Jan. 19, 1994.
According to data from the Kentucky Climate Center, the Richmond reading would tie the all-time February record low for the state set in Princeton on Feb. 2, 1951.
Lexington plunged to 18 below zero, marking its coldest day since Jan. 19, 1994.
WAVE-TV in Louisville said thousands lost power in Hardin, Nelson and Oldham counties during the worst of the cold Thursday night due to a transmission line failure. Several businesses in Radcliff remained closed due to lack of power Friday morning.
Maine
Museum patrons at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine, were evacuated after a gas line was punctured on Thursday, Kristen Levesque, director of public relations for the museum, told the Weather Channel. Icicles fell from the roof of the children's museum and punctured the line, causing a gas leak. Visitors were back in the museum within an hour, Levesque noted.
Maryland
Extreme cold has strained aging infrastructure in Baltimore, leading to water main breaks that have prompted at least 1,200 calls to the city's water department according to WBAL-TV. Some parked cars have been encased in ice as water from the ruptures is splashed onto them by passing cars, then frozen in the bitterly cold conditions.
The official low at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport reached 1 degree Friday morning, the Baltimore area's coldest since Jan. 19, 1997.
Michigan
The nation's low Friday was 39 below zero at both Roscommon in Lower Michigan and Spincich Lake in Upper Michigan.
Flint, Michigan tied its all-time record low of 25 degrees below zero Friday morning - a record originally set in January 1976.
Brutal wind chills triggered school districts across West Michigan to cancel class or run a two-hour delay, MLive reports.
Plummeting temperatures reached minus 37 near Rudyard, minus 35 in Pellston and minus 34 in Grayling, respectively. At the Ann Arbor Airport, temperatures the mercury plunged to minus 30.
"Got down to -29F at my back yard Davis station 30 miles north of Ann Arbor, which is by far the coldest this hardy northerner has experienced in his 54 years on the planet. That's going to be hard on the box elder beetles and my less hardy shrubs!" Weather Underground Director of Meteorology Jeff Masters said.
Minnesota
The coldest conditions in the nation Thursday were found in parts of northern Minnesota, accustomed to extreme cold in the winter months. The town of Cotton logged the nation's low Thursday at 43 below zero.
New Jersey
Frozen fire hydrants kept firefighters from gaining control over an apartment complex fire in Lindenwold early Saturday morning, WPVI-TV said. Twenty-six residents were displaced.
New York
On Wednesday, Pace University students at the Pleasantville campus in Pleasantville, New York, were evacuated to different buildings after a pipe failure prompted them to shut the gas off, according to the university's web site. The failure cut off heat to eight buildings during frigid temperatures.
Over 500 students at the University of Buffalo were evacuated Wednesday after frozen sprinklers caused a power outage in a six-building dorm, many spending the night on cots at the gym, the Associated Press says.
New York City Emergency Management issued a weather alert for "dangerous cold temperatures" for Friday night and for a wintry mix of precipitation expected from Winter Storm Pandora over the coming weekend.
Jamestown, New York, which posted an all-time record low of 31 below zero Tuesday, recorded a temperature of minus 23 Friday, making it the coldest spot in the state.
North Carolina
Schools across the state canceled class Friday as temperatures dropped to below freezing.
The Charlotte Observer reported nine water main breaks in the city of Charlotte Thursday and Friday as temperatures fell to a record low of 7 degrees Friday morning.
Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the Appalachian Mountains at 6,683 feet above sea level, recorded a temperature of 20 below zero Friday morning after having only reached 5 below zero for a high Thursday.
Ohio
At least one hypothermia death has occurred in Ohio. A drunken man died just feet from his home in Canton before being found by a snowplow driver, WEWS-TV reported. The county coroner told the Cleveland television station the man's body temperature was 70 degrees.
Columbus, Ohio, saw two separate water main breaks early Friday morning and crews rushed to prevent ice from coating nearby roadways, WBNS reports.
A low of 17 below zero at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport early Friday marked Cleveland's coldest temperature on record for the month of February, eclipsing the minus-16 reading logged in the historic arctic outbreak of February 1899.
Toledo also broke its February record low, hitting 19 below, and Youngstown tied its record low for the month at 14 below.
Just east of Cleveland, the city of Chardon crashed to 29 below to become the state's cold spot Friday. The reading was only 10 degrees short of the all-time record for the state of Ohio.
Pennsylvania
Several people were evacuated in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia after a water main break caused water to be shut off to 100 homes Saturday morning, MyFOX Philly said. Freezing water caused the break, and many homes were flooded.
At least six people in Pennsylvania died over the last few days after suffering from hypothermia and symptoms related to extreme cold, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia reports.
Dr. Walter Hofman, the Montgomery County Medical Examiner, said the victims were mostly elderly and/or suffering from dementia.
"These are the folks that fall through the cracks, and its very frustrating to have preventable deaths and no one does anything about it," Hofman told the station.
Philadelphia reached 2 degrees Friday morning. While not a record for the date, it was the city's coldest reading on any day since January 1994.
In New Castle, Pennsylvania, temperatures reached minus 19 degrees Friday morning, while Springboro reached 31 below zero. The all-time record for Pennsylvania is minus 42 at Smethport in January 1904.
Tennessee
At least 11 people have died due to hypothermia across Tennessee. The Tennessee Office of Emergency Management (TEMA) confirmed the fatalities Sunday.
TEMA reported that over 15,000 customers were without power Thursday morning, down from 33,000 the day before, according to WTVC.
Virginia
A broken water main flooded streets in Falls Church, Virginia, before officials made the call to shut off service to the area. The break, which happened Thursday moring, has been attributed to the record low temperatures striking the state, ABC 7 says.
Officials with Fairfax Water say they've fixed 200 water main breaks this winter alone.
The Associated Press reports that Virginia Railway Express trains are running delays due to frozen switches.
In Arlington, Virginia, freezing temperatures are triggering fire alarm systems and leading firefighters on a wild goose chase of false calls. WTTG-TV says the fire alarms are triggered when sprinkler pipes freeze and bust.
The low at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia was 1 degree Friday morning.
Lynchburg, where records have been kept since 1893, recorded an all-time record low of minus 11 Friday morning. Grundy, Virginia, was the state's apparent cold spot Friday at minus 17.
West Virginia
Subzero cold gripped much of the state Friday morning. Huntington, on the banks of the Ohio River, hit 15 below zero to log its lowest temperature since January 1994.
WSAZ-TV said some motorists in Huntington couldn't start their cars due to the extreme cold Friday morning. At least one water main broke in Charleston, coating nearby parked cars with ice.
More people are dying from hypothermia in the United States, a new government report shows, raising fresh worries for a nation that has been pounded by a steady succession of winter storms this year.
Those most at risk for hypothermia include seniors, the mentally ill, people addicted to alcohol or drugs, and those living alone, according to the analysis published Feb. 20 inMorbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hypothermia is a dangerous drop in body temperature.
Local agencies have gotten better at responding to extreme cold emergencies by opening public warming shelters and taking other measures, but the CDC researchers concluded that more needs to be done.
"This report suggests that state and local health agencies also might need to focus more on public education, communication networks to reach the most vulnerable persons, and targeted interventions for groups at risk," the authors wrote.
More than 13,400 hypothermia deaths occurred in the United States between 2003 and 2013, with unadjusted annual rates ranging from 0.3 to 0.5 per 100,000 persons, the report says. A statistically significant increase in death rates from hypothermia occurred over the decade.
"There's a recurrent problem every year, and it always happens during these cold snaps where there are multiple days in a row in which the temperature drops below freezing," said Dr. Vaishali Patel, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City.
Men and women aged 65 or older are at much greater risk of hypothermia death. Average death rates for male seniors were 1.8 per 100,000 people during the decade in question, while female seniors had a 1.1 per 100,000 people hypothermia death rate, the report found.
"Elderly patients are at higher risk just due to their age and their slightly decreased circulation," Patel said, adding that some medications affect seniors' ability to regulate their body temperature. This means they can experience hypothermia more rapidly.
To better understand the risk factors for hypothermia, the Wisconsin Division of Public Health in 2014 began active surveillance for extreme-cold deaths, the CDC report said.
Between January 2014 and April 2014, there were 27 hypothermia-related deaths in Wisconsin. The CDC report noted several specific cases, including:
- A 59-year-old woman was found in her driveway in February 2014, three days after her last contact with a friend. She lived alone and had several chronic illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pinched spinal nerves. Investigators concluded that she fell down, hurt herself and froze to death, even though she had on weather-appropriate clothing.
- A man with advanced Parkinson's disease, age 63, was found in a snow-covered field in March 2014. He lived alone, and family members reported that he had been unable to care for himself completely. Neighbors noted he had a tendency to wander outdoors. He was found wearing only jeans, a short-sleeved shirt, shoes and gloves.
- A 25-year-old man was found frozen to death a block from his home. He had a history of being healthy, with no known medical conditions, but his blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit.
Two-thirds of the people who died of hypothermia in Wisconsin were men, and their average age was 66, the report said. About one in five were intoxicated, subsequent toxicology tests determined. The average outdoors temperature at the estimated time of death was 6 degrees Fahrenheit, public health officials found.
People spending time outdoors during a cold snap should be aware of the symptoms of hypothermia, Patel said. These include confusion or sleepiness, slowed or slurred speech, shallow breathing, weak pulse, slow reactions and poor control over body movements.
"As hypothermia worsens, it starts to cause confusion and slows reaction times. The best thing is to try to catch it as early as possible," she said.
To avoid hypothermia, people should wear multiple layers of clothing, including a good head covering. "That's a prime place where heat is lost," Patel said.
People should limit the time they spend outdoors, and come inside to warm up as frequently as possible, she said. Unfortunately, many homeless people don't have access to warming shelters, particularly at night.
"Those centers are frequently overwhelmed with the number of people who are trying to get in, which leaves the homeless without anywhere to go to protect themselves," Patel said.
People should try to check in regularly with friends and relatives who are elderly, mentally impaired or struggling with an addiction, to make sure they are staying warm, Patel added.
"Make sure their heat is actually working," she said. "A lot of time, these deaths are caused by faulty heating systems. Check on them once a day, once every other day to make sure they are maintaining themselves and are not in a dangerous situation."
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