Winter hits with a vengeance across U.S.

December 23, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

The weather outside was frightful from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., on Monday, with last-minute holiday shoppers shivering and stranded travelers hoping for the best as Christmas rapidly approached.

The little town of Eustis, Maine, got nearly 31‚Ñ2 feet of snow.

In Marysville, Wash., north of Seattle, heavy snow collapsed part of the roof Monday at the Whitley Evergreen factory, which makes modular buildings. No one was injured, but inspectors were dispatched to make sure other buildings in the business park were safe.

The 14.5-inch snowfall Sunday in Portland, Maine, surpassed the old record for Dec. 21 of 12.4 inches, set in 1933. On the other side of the country, 11 to 13 inches in Portland, Ore., was the biggest snowfall since January 1980. Depending on how much more fell Monday as the snow trailed off, the storm could rank as one of the city’s 10 worst on record.

“It is amazing,” said Dave Thompson, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation. “You say to yourself: ‘That’s Portland?’ The roads are snowpacked, covered with ice, and it’s freezing rain.”

Kim Osgood, who owns Paloma Clothing in the Hillsdale Shopping Center in southwest Portland, served hot cocoa Sunday and gave away $24 crampons — foot gear for ice and snow climbs — to anyone spending $50 in her store.

“This is the worst Christmas I have ever seen in 33 years,” Osgood said. “The good news here is for shoppers. If they can get out, they’ll get amazing bargains.”

Temperatures in Chicago — hard hit over the weekend with subzero readings as winter officially began — were up to the single digits Monday and could rise to the mid-20s today. But that should coincide with several inches of snowfall today and Wednesday, forecasters said.

Snowfall was relatively scant in the Midwest and East, but high winds whipped up snow along roadways and, along with ice, made driving hazardous for holiday travelers.

In western New York, a 134-mile stretch of the state Thruway between Rochester and Pennsylvania was closed for six hours overnight because of blowing snow. In Pittsburgh, schools were initially to open two hours late but were closed for the day instead because of below-zero wind chills.