Winter arrives with a vengeance

updated 8:20 p.m. ET Dec. 22, 2008

CHICAGO - The weather 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 3 1/2 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, a total of 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."

'Amazing bargains' for shoppers
Kim Osgood, who owns Paloma Clothing in the Hillsdale Shopping Center in southwest Portland, served hot cocoa on 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 Tuesday. But that should coincide with several inches of snowfall Tuesday 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.

For the mid-Atlantic states, the storm took the form of weekend snow and rain — followed by a cold snap early Monday. High winds overnight cut off power to 13,000 homes and businesses in Maryland. Baltimore Gas & Electric said on its Web site that all but 1,200 had service restored by midafternoon.

Bundling up and getting out
Kelly Dagostino of Texarkana, Ark., was visiting New York for the first time and bundled up Monday so the cold wouldn't keep her from her plans.

"It's still cold, very cold, but I want to see stuff, so we're out and about in it," she said as she checked out Macy's holiday windows along 34th Street. The temperature in Central Park had dropped into the low teens overnight, and wind gusts near 30 mph made it feel like it was below zero.

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