NO END IN SIGHT FOR COLD, SNOW

Enough is enough.

That's what many local residents are saying after the latest round in a series of winter storms that have left Cape Girardeau iced over and waiting out near-record cold weather.

Better get used to it, says the National Weather Service. The temperature is predicted to remain well below freezing for the rest of the week and is not expected to improve much during the first week of the new millennium.

"We expect no major warm-up for at least the next two weeks," said meteorologist Pat Spoden of the service's Paducah, Ky., station. "Cold air continues to move south out of Canada, and it feeds on itself. There's snow on the ground all the way from here to the North Pole, and air tends to take on the attributes of the land that it's over."

For Southeast Missouri and western Kentucky, this December ranks among the top worst Decembers since 1962, when the National Weather Service began keeping records.

"We're in the ballpark of being the coldest December," he said. "We're in the top three now."

For Yellow Cab Co. dispatcher Dawayne Phoenix of Cape Girardeau, falling snow and icy roads meant his phones were ringing off the hook Tuesday with people afraid to drive themselves.

"It's three times more than usual," said Phoenix. "Mostly, it's people going to the hospital, nursing homes or work."

On Tuesday, all counties in Southeast Missouri were under a winter storm advisory.

This month, frequent light snows of less than an inch beginning on Dec. 2 and a blizzard on Dec. 13 that left four inches of accumulation have not melted off.

The average daily temperature for the area this month has been 10 degrees lower than the normal December temperature of 37.3 degrees, the National Weather Service reported.

December 1999 saw infrequent, light snows -- all less than an inch -- and daily highs that climbed above freezing every day except Dec. 21.

The opening of December 1998 was almost balmy, with daily highs in the 60s and 70s through Dec. 6. The rest of the month saw only infrequent, trace amounts of snow that disappeared quickly.

The coldest December on National Weather Service records was in 1989, with an average temperature of 27.1 degrees.

Daily highs for Dec. 27

Reported at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport

2000 - 32 -degrees (forecast)

1999 - 43

1998 - 35

1997 - 42

1996 - 50

1995 - 35

1994 - 55

1993 - 35

1992 - 35

1991 - 53