A bone-chilling Arctic blast has gripped the island, sending thermometers plunging and locking the region in a rare mid-winter freeze. On January 31 at Islip MacArthur Airport, the mercury dropped to 0°F, setting a new record low for that date and smashing the previous mark of 3°F.
Nighttime temperatures dipped into the single digits for days straight, and wind chills fell well below zero, making the outdoors feel truly bitter. The region dodged a second winter storm in a week as a bomb-cyclone passed just to the south, bringing biting wind and large surf to the outer beaches.
Despite the chill, the cold snap has not yet reached Long Island’s all-time lowest temperature, which was –14°F on February 13, 1967. That frigid mark doesn’t even come close to the state record of an astonishing –52°F, recorded in the Adirondack region at Old Forge on February 18, 1979.
New York’s cold temperatures pale in comparison to Alaska’s Prospect Creek Camp, where the thermometer plunged to –80°F on January 23, 1971. By contrast, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was –128.6°F at Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983. For those planning a trip to the Moon, get ready for temperatures as low as –410°F in some of the permanently shadowed craters.
New York’s prolonged freeze has turned many of the Island’s lakes and ponds into natural skating rinks. Those who braved the wind chill laced up and glided over smooth ice at spots such as Kaler’s Pond in Center Moriches, while kids sledded down whatever hills they could find. Back at home, residents struggled with frozen water pipes and sewer lines, their driveways still coated in ice from a heavy snowfall the week before.
Along the South Shore, Moriches Bay is almost completely frozen over, prompting old-timers to recall the days when winters were so severe that people could drive across the Great South Bay to Fire Island.