E-mail
Print
COLUMBIA — Despite temperatures dropping to 1 Thursday, Lowell Branham was still walking his downtown route in the bitter cold. A mail carrier for 20 years, Branham was dressed in what seemed only a postal uniform,but he has a secret for staying warm: “I don’t buy cheap long underwear,” Branham said.
On the MU campus, Ron Harrison was moving a water heater into the Fine Arts building in jeans, overcoat, two pairs of gloves and a stocking cap.
- Shaquille Thompson, 16, and Quinton Sanders, 14, race to the basketball hoop at the court outside of The Intersection, an after-school program for youth. "It's freezing! I can't feel my hands or my arms," Thompson said as they went back inside because of the cold.
- Sam Kepoo, a construction worker for Vaughan Pools, writes down measurements while working on a pool at the Hampton Inn construction site off Stadium and Rock Quarry on Thursday. Columbia's temperature hovered around 17 degrees midday.
- Thomas Jones, a Columbia crossing guard for the past seven years, says that he has found many ways to stay warm when the temperature drops, including ditching his long johns, which actually make him colder. "The kids all know him, the parents all know him, he really is a fixture at the school," said Grant third-grade teacher Ken Greimann.
- Thomas Jones, a Columbia crossing guard for the past seven years, waits at the intersection of Broadway and Garth Ave. before children are let out from Ulysses S. Grant Elementary School on Thursday.
- Workers from Columbia's Water and Light Department brave the cold to repair a leak in a water main on Providence Road on Thursday. After working the site all morning, the crew had adjusted to the low temperature.
“The other guys wear overalls,” Harrison said, “but I just wear jeans because it’s my ears that get cold.”
Yes, it was cold Thursday.
The day began with a pre-dawn temperature of 1. By 10 a.m., it had risen to 8. By noon, it was 13, and at 3 p.m. the day’s high was 19.
“The coldest temperature on this date was minus 15 degrees in 1894,” said Benjamin Sipprell, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in St. Louis. The record high for this day was 78 degrees in 1950, he said.
“The last couple of days have been below normal,” Sipprell said.
This week’s low temperatures can be attributed to an Arctic air mass, a high-pressure system that has moved south out of northern Canada, he said.
The air mass remains solid and continues to draw down cold air. However, Sipprell said, warm air coming up from the south will help warm up this weekend.
Friday’s temperature is predicted to reach 33. Saturday’s temperature should rise to 47, and Sunday should reach 52. After the weekend, temperatures are predicted to remain above freezing, but the Arctic air mass is a pattern that is likely to return, Sipprell said.
Rachel Smeda contributed to this story.
Comments