What Bears fans should do to avoid freezing at tonight's game

Interceptions, bad calls, fumbles — if the Chicago Bears lose their game against the Dallas Cowboys tonight, you could blame the weather.

Intense cold at its worst can cause fatigue or confusion, which are symptoms of hypothermia, DuPage County Health Department Medical Officer Rashmi Chugh said. But while the football players will have heaters and trainers standing by, fans braving the winds off Lake Michigan and low temperatures need to take sensible precautions, she advised.

“I definitely recommend dressing in layers of light, warm clothing — mittens, hats, scarves and waterproof boots,” Chugh said. “With wet clothing, people lose body heat 25 times faster than with dry clothing.”

Temperatures are expected to drop throughout the day and be in the teens by kickoff at Soldier Field. Forecasters say wind chills will fall well below zero, making it feel much colder.

Fan Carmen Pignatiello of Geneva is headed to the game and will take the big chill in stride after experiencing the Nov. 17 game where high winds temporarily suspended play. His father-in-law has season tickets, so he's used to arctic football.

“I'll wear layer after layer after layer,” Pignatiello said. “My father-in-law bought me a Ditka jersey that I want to wear so I'll to get as much underneath it as I can. The players have it easy out there — they're running around but it's going to affect the people in the stands.”

About three inches of snow fell at O'Hare International Airport on Sunday and flurries continued Monday. Numerous traffic accidents were reported during Monday morning's commute, but none serious.

The National Weather Service in Romeoville says the wind chill in some parts of northern Illinois could sink to 15 below zero tonight.

Chugh advises fans to drink warm beverages, such as hot chocolate, but avoid alcohol or caffeine because they cause individuals to lose heat more rapidly.

In addition to hypothermia, people outdoors for any length of time should watch out for frostbite. Symptoms include loss of feeling or color in tissue.

People with hypertension or heart disease should take special precautions if spending time outside, said Chugh, a physician who specializes in public health. And parents with small children who want to play outdoors but don't realize how cold it is should limit their exposure to five or 10 minutes at a time.

The rest of the country is grappling with tough winter weather as well.

The freezing trend will continue for most of the week. Tuesday's high is expected to be 20 degrees, but wind gusts will make it feel like it's just 1. Slightly warmer temperatures will arrive by Friday, when the high is expected to be 30, but with the warmth will come a chance of 3 to 6 inches of snow, forecasters say.

A plodding storm that dumped heavy snow on the unsuspecting mid-Atlantic region left roads slippery and slushy in the Northeast for Monday's commute while travel disruptions continued rippling across the country days after the same system first began wreaking havoc in the skies.

The storm that coated parts of Texas in ice struck with unexpected force Sunday on the East Coast, blanketing some spots in a foot of snow, grinding highways to a halt, causing power outages, and closing schools or delaying start times. The federal government was allowing workers to arrive up to two hours later than normal Monday or take unscheduled leave as freezing rain fell.

“Getting snow and ice off the car was the hardest thing,” said Brian Holmes, 63, of Alexandria, Va. “I couldn't find my scraper. I had to improvise with my broken snow shovel.”

In Washington, cabdriver Mahdi Abdi said he had been driving since around midnight and the main roads were clear. But side streets were a different story.

“The small streets, a lot of them are icy,” said Abdi, 52. “I don't even go in.”

The storm canceled more than 2,800 flights Sunday and delayed thousands more, according to estimates from the website Flightaware.com. More than 1,200 flights Monday were already canceled, the greatest share from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which was still reeling from the effects of the ice storm that brought North Texas to a standstill. About 650 people were stranded there Sunday night, down from Friday night when about 4,000 travelers were stranded, airport spokesman David Magana said.

The forecast for Monday remained up in the air for the Northeast, depending on how quickly the system moves and temperatures rise, according to the National Weather Service.

The expectation overnight was for another weather system moving out of Virginia to follow the same path as Sunday's storm. It was forecast to dump icy drizzle and eventually freezing rain through the New York City area and into Boston, National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Heavener said.

Indeed, slippery conditions were reported overnight in the New York City area: One crash involving about 20 vehicles closed southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Greenwich, Conn., for a couple of hours. No serious injuries were reported.

Forecasters said air travel would likely remain a hassle, too.

“I think the further north you look, departures and arrivals could be affected because of icy issues,” Heavener said.

What was forecast in the Philadelphia area to be a tame storm with about an inch of snow gradually changing over to rain mushroomed into a full-blown snowstorm. A foot of snow was reported in Newark, Del. Philadelphia International Airport received 8.6 inches, more than it had all of last year. Other areas received far less: a little over an inch was reported in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, which usually is hit harder than downtown Philadelphia.

Sunday's snow fell so heavily in Philadelphia that yard markers at Lincoln Financial Field — where the Eagles beat the Detroit Lions — were completely obscured. It was almost as bad in Pittsburgh, where the snow intensified after the opening kickoff.

Philadelphia fan Dave Hamilton, of Ivyland, layered up for the game in Eagles gear.

“Twenty-seven years I've been a season-ticket holder, I've never seen snow at the game like this,” he said. “It just kept coming down.”

Heavy snow in the Philadelphia area led to a number of accidents, including a fatal crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that spawned fender-benders involving 50 cars, stranding some motorists for up to seven hours. More than two dozen vehicles were involved in another series of crashes on nearby Interstate 78.

Paul Jones, 24, a youth hockey coach from Warminster in the Philadelphia suburbs, was on his way to a game in Lancaster when he got stuck — along with his fiancee, another coach and three players — in a major backup on the turnpike.

The roadway was “snow-covered, slick,” Jones said by phone from the car, where he was a passenger and had been at a standstill for more than an hour.

“People are in and out” of their vehicles, he said. “Kids are having a snowball fight on the side of the road, making snow angels, people are walking their dogs.”

Stacey Jackson, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia airport, said Sunday a number of passengers were expected to remain in the airport overnight since area hotels had been full for several days. She said staff would hand out pillows and blankets to travelers to make them “feel at home even though they are not.”

Air passengers in the Washington-area experienced increasing delays at both Dulles International and Ronald Reagan Washington National airports.

Power outages were reported in Virginia, parts of West Virginia, Maryland and the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area following freezing rain, wet snow and sleet. Parts of northwest and southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia got snow, while sleet and freezing rain prevailed west and north of Richmond.

In Maryland, a chain-reaction accident on Interstate 81 in Washington County involving more than 20 vehicles delayed snow removal efforts for hours. The highway was closed for more than three hours after a tractor-trailer ran into the median to avoid cars that had spun out. It was hit by another tractor-trailer that overturned and spilled its load. Several other tractor-trailers ran off the road and jackknifed as their drivers tried to avoid the crash.

But the nasty weather wasn't limited to the East Coast. Nebraska and Iowa saw snow; multiple weather-related crashes were reported in Wisconsin, including two that were fatal; and thousands of customers lost power in Mississippi because of sleet and freezing rain.

A snowstorm that hit along the Utah-Arizona border left hundreds of travelers stranded on Interstate 15 overnight into Sunday. The Arizona Highway Patrol said passengers in about 300 vehicles became stranded after up to 10 inches of snow and slick road conditions prompted the closure of part of the highway. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

Ÿ Daily Herald wire services contributed to this story.