The northeastern United States and Canada battled a “generation” arctic blast that brought record cold snaps with temperatures as low as minus 78 degrees Celsius over the weekend.
A dangerous combination of record low temperatures and strong winds created life-threatening conditions and killed a baby in Massachusetts on Saturday.
At night, Mount Washington in New Hampshire recorded wind chill — a measure of how the combined effect of air and wind feels on the skin — of minus 78 degrees Celsius (minus 108 degrees Fahrenheit), the lowest in the United States.
According to the Mount Washington Observatory, the peak air temperature reached minus 44 degrees Celsius, and wind speeds reached 160 km / h.
Strong winds toppled a tree onto a car in Southwick, Massachusetts, the Hampden District Attorney said in a statement, crushing the car and killing an infant passenger. The driver was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
In Boston, where officials shut down the public school system on Friday due to looming frosts, low temperatures hit minus 23 degrees Celsius, breaking a daily record set more than a century ago, NWS reported.
In Providence, Rhode Island, the mercury dropped to minus 23 degrees Celsius, well below the previous all-time low of minus 19 degrees Celsius set in 1918.
The lowest level
An Arctic explosion that hit the United States from eastern Canada brought record low temperatures to Albany, New York; Augusta, Maine; Rochester, New York; and Worcester, Massachusetts, among other locations, NWS reported.
The NWS office in Caribou, Maine, said it had received reports of “freezes” — tremors that resemble earthquakes but are caused by the sudden cracking of soil in the cold, as well as splitting of trees, likely due to freezing of sap inside the trunks. .
Several cities have taken emergency action to help residents, including opening warming centers and raising awareness to keep the homeless from the bitter cold.
In Boston, the Pine Street Inn, New England’s largest homeless service provider, has doubled the number of vans hitting the streets Friday and Saturday, spokeswoman Barbara Trevisan said.
“They started going out earlier this week to warn people that the weather is going to be very extreme,” she said. “The purpose of last night was simply to keep people alive and safe.”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy ordered South Station, the city’s main train station, to remain open overnight to serve as an emergency shelter. Trevisan estimated that between 50 and 60 homeless people remained at the station overnight.
Many ski areas have closed due to the temperature. Jay Peak, a ski mountain in northern Vermont near the Canadian border, closed completely on Friday and Saturday, citing a danger to staff and skiers.
The cold weather is not expected to last long, with temperatures forecast to rise significantly on Sunday. The high temperature in Boston on Sunday will approach 8.3 degrees Celsius, according to the NWS.
