Minn. Town Hits 54 Below Zero, As Freezing
                               Temperatures Reach Across Eastern U.S., Gulf
                               Coast
                               01-17-2005 5:30 PM

                               Temperatures plummeted across the eastern
half
                               of the nation Monday, approaching an
all-time
                               record in northern Minnesota and freezing
the
                               Gulf Coast as a river of Arctic air pushed
                               southward.

                               Thermometers registered a low of 54 degrees
                               below zero at Embarrass, Minn.

                               "You keep living, but it gets old after a
                               while," said Christine Mackai, the town
clerk
                               for the community of 691 people in northeast
                               Minnesota.

                               Minnesota's record is 60 below, set on Feb.
2,
                               1996, in Tower, about 10 miles north of
                               Embarrass.

                               The cold at Embarrass didn't stop the
regular
                               customers from getting their morning coffee
at
                               Four Corners, a cafe and gas station.

                               "Everybody left their cars running,"
waitress
                               Trish Roggenbuck said. "It was pretty much
                               breathtaking when you walked outside."

                               While below-zero readings stayed in the
upper
                               Midwest, thermometers dropped below the
freezing
                               mark all the way to the Gulf of Mexico
coast.

                               The morning low was 28, with wind chills in
the
                               upper teens, at Mobile, Ala.,
Gulfport-Biloxi,
                               Miss., and Pensacola, Fla. A hard freeze
warning
                               was in effect overnight into Tuesday morning
for
                               parts of Mississippi, the weather service
said.

                               Mackai said Embarrass had been prepared for
                               bitter cold as early as last Thursday. "It
only
                               got down to 28 below, and that's nothing.
That's
                               no big deal," she said.

                               Elsewhere in northern Minnesota on Monday,
                               Babbitt chilled to 51 below, and
International
                               Falls _ which calls itself the Nation's
Icebox _
                               dropped to 44 below, the national Weather
                               Service said. Farther south, Minneapolis-St.
                               Paul bottomed out at a mere 11 below.

                               The arctic blast followed several days of
                               subzero temperatures. Weather service
                               meteorologist Greg Frosig in Duluth said
                               Monday's high would still be below zero in
                               northern Minnesota.
                               ___
                               On the Net:

                               National Weather Service:
                               http://weather.noaa.gov/

                               Current Temperatures-Ohio State University:

http://www.weatherimages.org/data/imag226.html