For a moment, there was a pause. and temperatures turned comparatively toasty. Minneapolis warmed to a high of 29°, Chicago 30°, Atlanta 55°. But then the Great Winter of '77 exhaled again, and the Big Freeze was back. Minneapolis shivered in a low of -8°, Chicago -13°, Atlanta -18°, Miami Beach 54°. Worse yet, another blizzard howled across the Midwest, and even colder blasts of arctic aircarrying temperatures as frigid as 40° below normal were expected to dive southward during the weekend across much of the U.S. east of the Rockies.
The new storm swept from Minnesota through Ohio, sending...