Cold Pueblo: Tucson shivers through record low temps
Cutting winds didn't make Tucson's record low overnight temperature of 18 degrees feel any warmer.
A strong cold front brought arctic air to Southern Arizona on Wednesday, bringing freezing weather with it.
Thursday morning's low of 18 degrees, recorded at Tucson International Airport, broke the previous record of 21 degrees set in 1910.
With the wind, the temperature felt like 5 degrees, the National Weather Service said.
On my West Side back porch, the mercury read 8 degrees just before dawn.
Either way, it's cold.
Tucson Water reported frozen electronics cut off water supplies to over 1,000 overnight.
A power outage left several thousand Green Valley customers without electricity overnight.
Schools in Douglas and Bisbee are closed Thursday.
Expect another cold day and night.
The Weather Service has issued a hard freeze warning effective until 11 a.m. Thursday. The day's high will be 38 degrees, and 10-20 mph winds are forecast—expect the temperature to feel like it's in the 20s.
A hard freeze warning will also be in effect overnight, from 9 p.m. to 10 a.m. Friday, with lows of 15-20 degrees forecast.
Friday's high should be in the 50s, climbing to the 60s over the weekend.
Could be worse...
While Tucsonans may shiver, other parts of the country are threatened with weather that's colder and more dangerous.
Chicago, a city that shrugs its broad shoulders at snowstorms, was shut down by a blizzard Wednesday. Schools there are closed again Thursday.
20 inches of snow fell at O'Hare Airport, according to the Weather Service, and with 70 mph gusts, wind chill temperatures overnight were forecast to fall to 30 degrees below zero.
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