Bitter Cold Hits Northeast, Closing Some Schools

Bone-chilling cold prompted schools around the Northeast to delay openings or cancel classes altogether on Monday. The cold snap was linked to at least two weekend deaths, including that of a woman whose frozen body was found in a driveway.

Schools in western and northeastern Pennsylvania, across upstate New York and parts of Vermont and New Hampshire closed their doors or delayed openings to protect students from temperatures that dropped in some locations as low as 25 degrees below zero or even colder.

The wind chill in some areas of New England was expected to make it feel as cold as 50 degrees below zero.In Montpelier, Vt., it was 21 below at 7 a.m.

"Snot-freezing cold," was how Kelly Walsh, 28, described it, walking home from an auto parts store after buying a new battery for her car, which wouldn't start Monday morning."I usually really like it. Today is a bit of nuisance," she said.Others agreed.

Will Forest, a 53-year-old web designer who was walking to work, called the cold "indescribable.I spent the summer in Dallas, Texas, and you can only experience the heat when you're there," he said. "Trying to explain it to people here is impossible. Conversely, this kind of cold, to try to explain to someone down there, you have to experience it. But it's also a really good filter, because if we didn't have this cold, everybody would want to live here and it wouldn't be the place it is."

What did he wear to prepare? "I put on two socks, a fleece and a desire to move very quickly."

The Arctic temperatures led Amtrak to suspend rail service Monday morning between Albany and New York City because the extreme cold affected signals and switches. Amtrak hoped to resume limited service between the two cities later Monday. Other rail lines are still running.The cold was blamed for two deaths over the weekend.

About 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia, a man died after spending the night in his car in frigid temperatures in Lansford, and his wife found him Saturday morning. Temperatures had dropped into the single digits overnight, but it's unclear why 49-year-old Alan Kurtz had slept in his car.