A severe Arctic winter has gripped the northeastern United States with dangerously low temperatures across the region, including Mount Washington in New Hampshire, where the temperature dropped to minus 79 degrees Celsius.
High wind warnings were issued for much of New York state, as well as for all six New England states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine -- a region home to about 16 million people.
The National Weather Service said the "deep freeze" will be relatively short-lived, but that the combination of cold and strong winds sweeping into the northeast will present life-threatening conditions through Saturday.
Schools in Boston and Worcester, Mass. (temperatures ranged from minus 13 to minus 16), New England's two largest cities, were among those closed Friday amid concerns about the risk of hypothermia and frostbite for children walking to school or they are waiting for the buses.
In those cities, record low temperatures were measured on that day compared to 1886 in Boston and 1934 in Worcester.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a state of emergency until Sunday and opened warming centers to help the city's 650.000 residents deal with what the National Weather Service said was shaping up to be a "once-in-a-generation" cold front.
Early Friday, an arctic wave that entered the United States from eastern Canada hit the American plains, weather service forecaster Bob Oravec said.
In Kabetogama, Minnesota, near the border with Ontario, a temperature of minus 39,5 degrees was measured.
Bitter cold and storm surges moved eastward during the day, with temperatures in the minus 40s across much of central Maine, meteorologist Brian Harley said.
"At Mt. Washington State Park, the highest peak in the Northeast, temperatures dropped to minus 46 Friday night, with 90 mph sustained winds bringing it to minus 76," Harley explained.
By comparison, the temperature at Eureka, Canada's northernmost Arctic weather station, hovered around minus 41 on Friday morning.
The cold also swept through mostly warm Texas with freezing rain, sleet and ice, causing major power outages and dangerously icy roads.
Warmer days are expected in that state, so temperatures in Austin should be up to 22 degrees by Monday.
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