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    Friday, April 26, 2024

    UPDATED: High winds, snow and then frigid temperatures today

    Bill Dougherty, owner of the Village Art Theaters in Olde Mistick Village, sweeps snow away from the entrance, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015.

    New London — Felicia Hernandez and her one-year-old son Kingsley waited this morning for the southbound Amtrak train to take them away from the latest Arctic blast to hit the region.

    “We’re trying to get to Orlando, to warmer weather,” said the city resident, sitting in the lobby of Union Station with her son on her lap. “It was supposed to take us about 26 hours by train, but it’ll be longer now that our train is more than an hour late.”

    But the long journey with her son and fiancé, she said, would be worth it, to get a weeklong respite from the cold and snow.

    “I’m over it,” she said of the winter of 2015.

    While Amtrak trains were running behind schedule, Cross Sound Ferry had stopped all service for today because of the high winds. New London and Middlesex counties are under a high wind warning from the National Weather Service until 6 p.m., with winds of 26 to 28 miles per hour and gusts of up to 60 miles per hour possible, the weather service said. The region is also under a wind chill advisory until 9 a.m. Monday. Afternoon temperatures hovered at around 13 degrees, with wind chills as low as -5. The thermometer is expected to drop to -2 degrees this evening, with wind chills of -10 to -20 Windy conditions will continue into the night, with gusts as high as 36 miles per hour, the weather service said.

    Around the region, local and state police and emergency officials reported no major accidents or other weather-related problems so far today. The state Department of Transportation reported a tractor-trailer accident on I-91 South near exit 28 in Hartford at about 10 a.m., but otherwise no major tie-ups around the state. Connecticut Light & Power reported no widespread outages in New London County, although 17 customers in Old Saybrook and one in North Stonington were without power for part of the morning. In the afternoon, 15 customers lost power in Montville and 2 in Westbrook. There were also outages in a few towns in the western part of the state, including Danbury, Newtown and Monroe.

    Gary Lessor, meteorologist with The Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University, said snowfall totals around the state so far Sunday ranged from eight inches in Putnam to about three inches in Groton, where gusts as high as 50 miles per hour were recorded. Portions of Massachusetts received more than 20 inches, he said.

    Another snowstorm is possible Tuesday, he said, though it is not expected to come with the high winds of today’s nor’easter.

    Ryan Denmark of New York City waited to catch a train back home after spending the weekend with his girlfriend in Waterford.

    “I tried to get a cab, and the first one had an accident, and the second one got lost,” he said. A co-worker of his girlfriend ended up taking him to the train station, only to learn the train home was delayed. But he was relieved the trains were running at all. Winter in New York, he said, hasn’t been as severe as what southeastern Connecticut has experienced.

    “It’s not the existential problem there it is for everyone here,” he said.

    As he spoke, a Cross Sound Ferry vessel could be seen through the lobby window, maneuvering close to the dock to be secured until the storm ended. Ferry service is expected to resume Monday.

    “There’s something kind of ghostly about seeing it come through the all that blowing snow,” Denmark said.

    Firefighters from Montville and Waterford arrive on the scene of a single car, roll-over accident on I-395 North just past the Montville Connecter at Exit 78 as the next winter storm bears down on the region Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015.

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