COLUMBUS – Central Ohioans woke up to winter’s first spell of bitterly cold weather.
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Dangerously frigid temperatures gripped the Upper Midwest and people in Ohio, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin were under wind chill advisories Wednesday and early Thursday, as were parts of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.
Central Ohio under Wind Chill Advisory from 2:00 a.m. – Noon Thursday. Wind chill indices could reach as low as -17 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures early Thursday morning were in the single digits and wind chills dipped to -15 in Columbus, -18 in Dayton and -16 in Lima.
The National Weather Service says highs ranged from 20 to 30 degrees below average in the northern U.S.
The icy chill presages a storm that’s expected to bring heavy snow in coming days, while schools and officials in the Northeast braced for their own wintry blast.
Winter’s arrival is good news for ski operators across the Midwest and Northeast, including Snow Trails, in Mansfield, which has already opened for the season.
Mad River Mountain in Bellefontaine will open Friday, debuting its brand new $6.5 million lodge (pictured).
The 46,000-square-foot building is twice the size of the lodge that burned down in 2015. The new version features a dining area for 800 people and a custom stone-faced bar and slope-side deck on the second floor.
The temperature was 4 below in Fargo, North Dakota, early Wednesday. A daylight reprieve in the single digits was short-lived, with lows Thursday morning forecast to be around minus-12.
The National Weather Service said that in western Wisconsin, Thursday morning’s wind chills could get as low as minus 30.
The cold has claimed at least one life: A 34-year-old woman died of hypothermia in St. Paul, Minnesota. She was found Monday, when temperatures dropped to 3 below zero and wind chills were minus 19.
Officials in Connecticut, Vermont and New York were also bracing for an arctic blast.