Connecticut was numbed by record-breaking cold Sunday following a weekend of single-digit temperatures and bone-chilling winds that deadened car batteries, burst water pipes and drove people into homeless shelters and warming centers.
Temperatures are expected to rise into the 30s on Monday, with 1 to 3 inches of snow, sleet and rain falling overnight.
Frigid air swept in Saturday, with the mercury dipping to 2 below zero at Bradley International Airport at 10 p.m., and a wind chill that made it feel like minus 19. The cold blast continued Sunday, with temperatures plunging as low as 20 below Sunday morning.
Fox 61 meteorologist Dan Amarante said the minus 11 degrees recorded at Bradley Sunday morning surpassed the previous low of minus 9 set in 1979.
The National Weather Service reported that Bridgeport also shattered its cold-weather record from last year with a minus 6 reading. Last year the city set a record with 3 degrees.
The wind chill gave the bitter cold a life-threatening edge.
“We have wind chill in the minus 20 to minus 40 range,” Amarante said. “We stay in the single digits all throughout the day.”
The brutal wind chill ratchets up the danger, and authorities said those in need of shelter or a warming center should call 211 to find available locations throughout the state.
The 211 center, based in Rocky Hill, handled 299 cold-weather emergency calls from across the state, and 445 people viewed shelter and safety information on the 211 cold-weather web page, said the United Way’s Richard Porth, director of the center.
Shelters and warming centers were operating well above 100 percent capacity, Lisa Tepper Bates, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, said Sunday evening.
“Shelter providers across the state are making heroic efforts to stay open day and night — to bring on extra staff and make sure that we can offer safe shelter to all in need,” Tepper Bates said. “In weather this cold, outreach teams work extra hard, in coordination with local law enforcement, to find those who may be outside and offer shelter.”
Thirty cities and towns across the state opened warming centers, said Scott DeVico, spokesman for the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.
Sunday night, Hartford firefighters responded to a flurry of burst pipes and compromised sprinkler systems at businesses in the area of 185 Asylum St. downtown, as well as in south and north Hartford. Fire crews shut off power in the affected businesses while they worked to control the flowing water, and used tarps to limit damage.
Temperatures will rise to the low 30s on Monday, but a wintry mix is on the way. The weather service issued a winter weather advisory for Monday afternoon through 6 a.m. Tuesday, with a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain expected. The forecast calls for 1 to 3 inches of snow, changing over to rain by early Tuesday morning.
Monday’s high is predicted to hover around 34 with temperatures getting up to 51 on Tuesday.
Despite the record-breaking weekend lows, Bradley was not reporting delays or disruptions in flight services. Metro-North Railroad and Amtrak service was running smoothly, officials said.
AAA responded to 1,700 calls as of Sunday afternoon – far above the usual volume, spokeswoman Amy Parmenter said. Most calls were for dead batteries.
AAA emergency roadside crews responded to more than 1,000 assistance calls Friday, and 850 more as of 11 p.m. Saturday, Parmenter said.
“Battery calls are double what they would typically be at this time of year but we’ve also seen an increase in calls for tows and of course tires,” she said.
