The freezing temperatures which gripped the Midwest on Monday have moved on to NYC. Chicago and the rest of the Midwest dealt with wind chills which made it feel like -50 degrees on Monday. Today in New York City, the high temperature is around 10 degrees, while wind chills made it feel like about -10 degrees.
NYC weather sets new record
ABC Local reports that new record low temperatures were set today at all three NYC airports and also Central Park. In Newark, a freezing temperature of 3 degrees was recorded, beating the previous record of 10 degrees in 1996. At LaGuardia Airport, the old record was 11 degrees, which was set in 1968. Today’s new record at the busy New York airport sliced that record nearly in half, coming in at 5 degrees this morning.
At Kennedy Airport in NYC, the weather also set a new record of 7 degrees, just barely beating the 1968 temperature of 8 degrees. In Central Park, this morning’s new record low temperature beat a record that’s nearly 120 years old. At the park, the temperature hit 5 degrees, just edging out the 1896 previous record of 6 degrees.
Freezing temperatures spur precautions
Today the Midwest continues to deal with the freezing temperatures as roads remain icy in spite of crews’ best attempts to thaw the ice. Department of Transportation vehicles kept breaking down in the cold temperatures, and the salt used to reduce ice on the roads proved ineffective at the extremely low temperatures. Some major interstates in the Midwest remained closed because of ice early Tuesday morning.
As the freezing temperatures moved to the East Coast, governments there put their own precautions in place. The bitter cold NYC weather caused alternate-side parking regulations to be suspended. Ferry services between Haverstraw and Ossining were also suspended today, and Amtrak ran on a modified schedule between Washington and Boston. Officials also placed speed restrictions on the Tappan Zee Bridge because of extremely high winds.
Freezing temperatures easily cause hypothermia
Both the East Coast and the Midwest continue to deal with the freezing temperatures today, and officials are warning residents about the danger of frostbite and hypothermia, which can occur in a matter of minutes if precautions are not taken. Chronic lung and heart conditions can also be exacerbated by the freezing temperatures, and health officials urged residents to stay inside as much as possible while these freezing temperatures remain.
This week’s freezing cold temperatures were caused by a phenomenon experts are calling a polar vortex, which NBC News meteorologist Al Roker called like “a polar hurricane.”
