The Midwest and East Coast seem to be locked in perpetual winter, even in March. With the first day of spring only 16 days away, yet another storm is poised to slam Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and other regional states, and the Midwest is about to see a resumption of subzero temperatures.
The next storm coming for the east is set to hit on Thursday, prompting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to preemptively issue a State of Emergency on Wednesday.
“Tonight’s storm is expected to produce travel hazards and potentially cause power outages throughout the state,” Christie said in a statement. “I’ve authorized state officials to take all necessary action to prepare, and my Administration will continue monitoring conditions throughout the remainder of the storm. I encourage all New Jerseyans to drive carefully and remain off the roads if possible so that our first responders and public safety officials can safely respond to any emergency situations.”
The snow has been so bad in Boston that residents are fighting over parking spaces. Unlike Chicago, Boston’s Mayor Marty Walsh has banned residents from using household articles like chairs and milk crates to save the parking spaces they had previously dug out of deep snow banks.
The banning has caused heartburn for many Bean Town residents. This is something Chicago has avoided for years with its own practice of saving spaces. It is such a long tradition that even Mayor Rahm Emanuel isn’t prepared to try and stop the practice.
While snow isn’t in the cards for the Midwest in the next few days, a chill is descending on Thursday and in some areas carrying on through the weekend.
Chicago had an icy rain storm hit on Tuesday causing an early mess for the morning commute. But on Thursday and Friday, the Windy City is expected to suffer yet another deep freeze. Temperatures are expected to begin rising on Saturday.
Indianapolis, Indiana is expecting a similar forecast to Chicago. Detroit mirrors those forecasts with expectations of temperatures closing in on the 40s by early next week.
While temperatures for the rest of the week aren’t expected to break any records, this has been a season of thousands of broken records. In fact, in the last week of February alone, 2,185 low temperature records were broken.
By some accounts, at least 2,634 low temperature records were broken in February.
Take Washington D.C., for instance. The last time the District set a low temperature record for early February was in 1970. But several low temperature records were set this year. Then on February 20, a record set all the way back in 1896 was smashed.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter: @warnerthuston. Email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.