Cold snap will break later this week

By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
    CARIBOU — A one-two punch of cold temperatures and biting winds caused folks in northern Maine to bundle up tightly during the past week while wading their way through a growing snowpack in order to reach their shovels. Below-zero temperatures have transformed the snow from last week’s two storms into that quintessential January-in-The-County crunchy snow.
    Officials with the National Weather Service office in Caribou recorded temperatures as low as -24 degrees at Clayton Lake in the Allagash on Monday morning. Wind chill data was unavailable from the same NWS data center, but it doesn’t take computer data for Aroostook residents to understand how cold winds have been compounding the chilled air blowing throughout the region.
    Speaking in strictly mercury readings, Houlton places pretty high on the low-temps list with 23 below recorded on Tuesday morning — and the already snowy city received over a foot of snow from storms in the last week.
    Caribou and Presque Isle have been pretty even temperature wise; Caribou’s low was -14 on both Monday and Tuesday morning, while Presque Isle was -13 Monday morning and -15 Tuesday morning. Both cities have around seven inches of snow — most all of which was received during the last two storms.