BY STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—Vermonters love to boast of their hardiness yet even the hardiest among us had to admit that Friday night was rough. Jack Frost wasn’t just nipping at our noses; it felt like he was hacking at them with an ice pick. Every inhalation of subzero air was a jab in the lungs. By Saturday morning, the temperature had fallen to -24, a deep freeze that caused houses to pop and crackle as their wood framing contracted in the cold.
RNESU closed all district schools on Friday because of the dangers posed by the weather. It was just too cold to transport children to school by bus.
Downtown, the Neshobe River transformed into something positively glacial as it tumbled over the falls beneath the bridge.
In preparation for the bitter cold, the town arranged warming shelters at the Brandon Congregational Church and the American Legion. According to Brandon Town Clerk Sue Gage, no one availed themselves of the overnight shelter at the church.
“Good thing [no one had to use it.] But they had it all set up with area rugs and cots,” Gage said. “I was tempted to stay just because it was so comfy!”
Sheila Gearwar, owner of Brandon House of Pizza, posted on Facebook that she would be closing early on Saturday because the restaurant was too cold to keep open.
It had been years since temperatures dropped so low. It was a gut punch in what has otherwise been a relatively mild winter.
The cold snap broke records throughout New England. On New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington, the tallest peak in New England, relentless winds sent the “feels-like” temperature down to -108, a record low even for the notoriously brutal site.
By Sunday, temperatures were back up in the 30s, making the weekend’s foray into subzero territory a brief rupture in our normal lives, like an obnoxious relative that shows up uninvited for a night.
Woe to the snowbirds and second-home owners who forgot to turn off the water and drain the pipes before leaving for the winter!
