Maryland Breaks Record Low, Other States See Snow

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A new record breaking cold is griping Maryland and the same system responsible for that is dumping several feet of snow farther north.

Mike Schuh breaks down the impact of this early winter freeze.

Baltimore is bundling up as a wintery system grips most of the country pushing temperatures here below freezing. The city broke its record low of 20 degrees set back in 1936. It was a reported 19 degrees at BWI, according to WJZ's First Warning Weather Team.

Add to that the strong winds and it can feel like the teens outside. But as cold as it is here, farther north it's even worse.

Thirty mile per hour winds created blinding conditions around Buffalo, NY, closing a 132-mile stretch of the New York State Thruway. Hundreds of cars have been stuck there since Monday.

Track weather using our CBSBaltimore Weather App!

"Oh it's bad, I got stuck on I-90. I got there about 5 o'clock in the morning and I was stuck there for 6 hours," said Usman Ehmed, a trucker.

Officials say five inches of snow is falling every hour and making it almost impossible to clear the roads with plows.

Towns like Lancaster, NY that sit along Lake Erie are being hit the hardest. This time lapse video shows the massive lake effect snowstorm moving onshore. More than 5 feet of snow is expected to fall by tonight in New York. For those residents, they can only stay home and wait it out.

"It's taken us 20 minutes to get here, a quarter mile down the road so I don't think we are heading anywhere. Just getting gas and going back home,' one local resident said.

And this frigid weather is not limited to the northeastern sea board. Froecasters said Tuesday temperatures fell to freezing or below in all 50 states.

The storm has led to at least six deaths in New York, New Hampshire and Michigan.

In Maryland, it should be warming up a bit by Wednesday afternoon. With some warming sunshine and less wind the temperature should get above freezing for a few hours! Even warmer temperatures are expected on Thursday as we get into the mid to upper 40's.

For the full 5-day forecast click over to our weather page.

Other Local News: