Mount Washington recorded a low of 47 degrees below zero.
Frigid cold and blustery winds hampered efforts Thursday to recover the body of a winter hiker found dead in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
Fish and Game Department Lt. Robert Bryant said the middle-aged man had been hiking in the mountains since Monday. He told friends by cell phone the next day that he expected to be out by Wednesday, when temperatures fell to minus 44 and the wind chill approached 100 degrees below zero.
Friends called the Fish and Game Department when he didn’t show up. Bryant said the body was spotted from a helicopter in Franconia and was flown from the Twinwaytrail area Thursday afternoon, when the temperature was minus 25 with 20 mph winds.
The man’s identity was being withheld while authorities contacted relatives.
“We won’t know the cause of death until an autopsy,” Bryant said, adding that although the hiker was well equipped, including tent and stove, “in these extreme temperatures it’s not always going to cut it.”
As New Hampshire residents struggled with another day of frigid temperatures Thursday, and the state was poised to break an all-time low, an unlikely group of workers cheered the chilly weather – service station attendants.
Though temperatures that hovered well below zero made it hard for thousands of drivers to start their cars, full service gas stations reported doing a booming business with drivers reluctant to brave the cold to pump their own.
“Business doubles in this weather,” said Don Weese, owner of Complete Car Care in Concord. “Normally we do about 2,500 gallons a day. Now we’re doing 4,500 to 5,000.”
He said his workers don’t mind the cold – the steady flow of cars keeps them moving and most wear snowmobile suits.
“We love to see it coming,” he said.
The frigid temperatures were expected to continue Friday, but National Weather Service meteorologist Tony Lacroix said the state would warm up during the weekend with temperatures in the 20s – that’s 20 above zero.
“Golly, that’s a heat wave,” he said.
Several public schools in New Hampshire closed Thursday and canceled or delayed Friday’s classes because of heating, electricity and safety issues.
In the Lakes Region, Wolfeboro, Ossipee, Tuftonboro, New Durham, Brookfield and Effingham canceled Friday’s classes. In Alton, Alton Central School was closed Thursday and will be closed Friday.
In southern New Hampshire, schools with canceled or delayed classes included Nashua, Hudson, Litchfield, Pelham, Salem, Windham and Derry.
On Thursday, temperatures dipped as low as 35 degrees below in Whitefield and 23 below in Berlin. On the Seacoast, where temperatures are moderated by the ocean, it hovered around zero.
The lowest official recorded temperature in New Hampshire was 47 below on Mount Washington set on Jan. 29, 1934, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center in Ithaca, N.Y.
Pete Sweeney, operations manager at the Mount Washington Observatory, said that record could be broken Thursday night or Friday morning, when temperatures could drop several degrees lower.
The cold weather meant quiet time for children at Pittsfield Elementary School in Pittsfield on Thursday. Principal John Freeman said pupils were kept inside for recess Wednesday and Thursday.
He said the children so far have been good about not being able to play outside, but “if we had another week or so of this it might be another story.”
The cold also challenged commuters, and those who help them.
AAA Northern New England, the emergency road assistance agency for Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, received a record 6,088 calls for help during the day, breaking the previous record of 5,025 calls last Friday, spokesman Matt McKenzie said.
But no records were being broken at Concord Motorcycle Shop, where parts salesman Bob Reinhard called it an “astoundingly slow day.”
He laughed when asked if any customers had come in seeking to test drive a motorcycle.
“Oh no. Oh no. I don’t think the salesmen have actually had one candidate come in to look at an ATV or anything,” he said. “We’re all kind of standing around saying it would be impossible to get any slower.”
AP-ES-01-15-04 1830EST
Comments are no longer available on this story