Arctic blast grips US Northeast
A powerful arctic blast swept into the US Northeast on Friday, pushing temperatures to perilously low levels across the region, including New Hampshire's Mount Washington, where the wind chill dropped to 105 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-79 Celsius), forecasters said.
Wind-child warnings were posted for most of New York state and all six New England states - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine - a region home to some 16 million people.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said the deep freeze would be relatively short-lived, but the combination of numbing cold and biting winds gripping the Northeast would pose life-threatening conditions well into Saturday.
Schools in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, New England's two largest cities, were among those closed on Friday over concerns about the risk of hypothermia and frostbite for children walking to school or waiting for buses.
Boston was at 8 degrees F (-13 C) on Friday evening, while in Worcester, Massachusetts, 40 miles (64 km) to the west, the mercury hit 3 F (-16 C), with temperatures expected to fall even lower, according to the National Weather Service.
Record cold was expected in both cities on Saturday. Forecasts called for a low of -6 F in Boston, exceeding an 1886 record -2 for the date. Worcester was headed for a low of -11 on Saturday, which would break its previous 1934 record of -4 for the date.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a state of emergency through Sunday and opened warming centres to help the city's 650,000-plus residents cope with what the NWS has warned was shaping up to be a "once-in-a-generation" cold front.
Reuters
