PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday could include the coldest weather in the last couple of years in some parts of Greater Philadelphia. Wind chills in the single digits were a bracing way to start Tuesday morning, the coldest day since February 2019. A brisk northwest wind made it feel 10 to 15 degrees colder than the actual air temperature.
NBC10 First Alert Meteorologist Krystal Klei called it an "arctic blast of cold air," and it's going to be parked over the region for a little while.
Some hardy souls, such as the joggers out on Kelly Drive, were unbothered.
"Once you get moving, it's fine. Yeah, once your body gets moving, you actually warm up," said Phil Capa, who is part of a group that runs through all kinds of weather, all year round.
"The trick is not to sweat too much, because when you sweat in this temperature, that's you really run into problems."
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It's important to find the right "Goldilocks" layering combination — not too hot, not too cold — but days like these can be very dangerous for those who spend too much time outside. Dozens of people are sent to the hospital every year for what they suffer in cold weather.
The city has issued a Code Blue. Anyone who sees a homeless person, or someone who is struggling with the cold, is encouraged to call 215-232-1984.
In that frigid cold Tuesday morning, the Philadelphia Fire Department battled not just fire, but also ice in North Philadelphia when an empty two-story building went up in flames.
The fire started when a car slammed into a power pole at 22nd and Sedgley streets around 6 a.m. The pole snapped, and the top of it hit the building, which houses a corner bar, leading to flames and heavy smoke.
Gale, who lives nearby, says the lights went out after the accident.
"Everything went out. It was just pitch black around here. It was crazy for a second," she said.
The fire and the ensuing commotion woke up a lot of neighbors.
"I looked outside, everything was pitch black. And then a couple minutes later we heard the ambulance and the sirens coming, and you saw the smoke from the top of the building and that’s when the fire just erupted," said Dior, a neighbor.
People in the neighborhood who lost power were able to stay warm in a heated SEPTA bus. Fire crews, out in the arctic air, had several streams of water blasting the flames on the roof and second floor of the corner property. The streams looked more like frozen ropes. And water that poured down the side of the building quickly formed into icicles on the first floor.
As the hoses were going, crews had to spread buckets of salt over the street so that they wouldn’t have to fight the fire while standing on an ice rink.
An official says no one was in the building at the time and there are no reports of anyone getting hurt. It took a few hours to get the fire under control.