Southwest Hit by Heavy Snow as Cold Persists in New England

Heavy snow fell Friday in the Southwest and forecasters posted winter storm warnings for the mountains of Arizona. Record cold chilled New England but cloudy skies helped raise the mercury in the frost-bitten Midwest.

Rain moved into Texas but did not ease the state’s fire danger, caused by a dry spell.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the Mogollon Rim and the White Mountains in north-central Arizona. An advisory for snow was posted over the higher elevations in the rest of the state’s northern half.

In a six-hour period Friday morning, 9 inches of snow was recorded at Flagstaff, Ariz.

Eight inches fell at Sacramento Mountain in New Mexico and 4 inches was reported at Ruidoso and Cloudcroft.

Cold air clung to New England. Temperatures were in the mid-teens with a subzero wind chill in Boston early Friday, and it was 4 below in Houlton, Me.

Friday was the 22nd day in a row that the mercury at Portland, Me., had not gone above 32 degrees--the longest duration of freezing temperatures in the city in 50 years of record-keeping.

The weather service said that temperatures from Illinois south remained in the mid to upper 30s overnight as clouds insulating much of the Midwest and upper Great Lakes states kept temperatures well above zero. The region had been particularly hard hit by the cold wave that numbed much of the nation in recent weeks.

But freezing rain moved into southeast Michigan and parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

Rain from Louisiana moved east into Texas on Friday, dampening some areas but not easing the fire danger caused by a dry spell in the Lone Star State. The Texas Forest Service expanded its outdoor burning ban farther south to include a wide area between San Antonio and the Gulf Coast.