WATERTOWN, N.Y. After more than two weeks of frigid days across upstate New York, warmer air will sweep east across the state today, pushing temperatures into the mid-30s.
That will be a welcome change from yesterday. At Watertown Airport, under a clear sky with hardly a breeze, the mercury plunged to 35 degrees below zero just before dawn.

The eastern shore of Lake Ontario has been pounded by the elements this month, with lake-effect squalls burying its many small communities under six to 12 feet of snow.

Arctic air knifed through the region early Monday, sending the temperatures dipping to minus 10 to minus 20 degrees.

But in a few isolated spots near the lake, the cold deepened as frigid air flowed down from Canada across the Saint Lawrence River valley.

The coldest temperature ever officially recorded in New York state was minus 52 degrees at Old Forge in the Adirondacks on February 18th, 1979.