Published Thursday
How to Describe Cold Spell: Relentless BY VERONICA ROSMAN
Call it the cold that would not quit. For nearly eight weeks now, the Midlands have been chilled to the bone by blasts of arctic air that have kept temperatures well below normal. Omaha has not seen temperatures above freezing for more than two weeks. Lincoln has seen its second-coldest November-December period on record. And Iowa likely will have its coldest month since 1983. But it is the cold spell's persistence - more than its temperatures - that has become noteworthy, said Ken Dewey, a weather analyst for the High Plains Climate Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "It certainly isn't our most-intense cold snap on record," Dewey said. "But those cold spells only lasted for a week or two and then it got warm. This has just been so persistent." In fact, Dewey said this could be among the area's longest cold spells on record. The prolonged cold is affecting nearly all aspects of life in the Midlands. Plumbers and furnace repairmen are working overtime to fix cracked pipes and exhausted heaters. Winter weather gear and space heaters are flying off store shelves. Sledding accidents and other weather-related injuries are keeping hospitals hopping. And people in general are getting sick of the cold, Dewey said. "We really can't complain because it hasn't been record-breaking cold," he said. "But people are really getting annoyed." Across Nebraska, average daily
temperatures have been ranging from 6 to 10 degrees below normal. By the
end of the month, Iowa should have an average statewide temperature about
10 degrees below normal, making it the second-coldest December on record.
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