Temperatures in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont plummeted far below zero as inhabitants hunkered down as shelters scrambled to provide more room.
At -108 degrees, Mount Washington established a record for the worst wind chill ever measured.
National windchill record set in New Hampshire
(Photo : JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
On Saturday, a life-threatening cold spell began to lift in the northeastern United States, but only after a new national windchill record was established in New Hampshire, as per CNN.
Mount Washington established the record Friday night when it felt like negative 108° F due to a temperature of negative 46° F and wind gusts of 127 mph.
Wind chill records have not been as thoroughly kept as temperature records in the past, but the mark would exceed what most meteorologists consider to be the US record (minus 105° F in Alaska). Mount Washington's previous low temperature was - 102.7° F in 2004.
Approximately 15 million people in the United States were under wind chill warnings early Saturday, but that figure had decreased to fewer than 1 million by midday as the severe cold began to fade.
By 7 p.m., the majority of the remaining wind chill warnings will be lifted. Saturday, when temperatures begin to stabilize and winds begin to calm down.
On Sunday, temperatures will rise five to 10 degrees above usual.
According to local National Weather Service offices, many day low-temperature records were established in parts of the Northeast last Saturday morning.
Saturday morning's low temperature in Boston was -10, beating the previous day's record of minus 2.
According to the meteorological service, this is the first double-digit negative temperature recorded since 1957.
Worcester, Massachusetts, reached a new daily low of -13 degrees, breaking the previous low of minus 4. Providence, Rhode Island, set a new daily low of - 9 degrees, breaking the previous low of minus 2.
Hartford, Connecticut, touched -9 degrees, breaking the previous day's record of -8 degrees.
Government officials recommended citizens remain inside as much as possible.
Dangerously cold winds are blowing in from Canada, putting entire states at risk.
The harshest effects are predicted in northern Maine, where blizzard warnings are in effect for around 70,000 people in Penobscot and Aroostook counties through Saturday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
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Temperatures dropped to 4 degrees in New York City, -6 degrees in Hartford, Conn., and -15 degrees in Concord, N.H., with the wind making it seem even worse, as per The New York Times.
The weather system was responsible for at least one death. On Friday in western Massachusetts, a tree toppled and smashed a car in Southwick, west of Springfield, killing an infant passenger.
According to a statement from the district attorney's office in Hampden County, the 23-year-old driver, the victim's aunt, received critical injuries.
The temperature was minus 47 degrees at 4 a.m. at the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the region's highest peak.
Saturday equaled the previous record, which had been established in 1934.
Wind chills hit minus 110 degrees Fahrenheit and were likely among the lowest ever recorded, however, workers at the 6,288-foot peak's meteorological observatory claimed they do not preserve long-term wind chill data and could not confirm the record.
Conditions had improved by late Saturday, and the bitter cold was forecast to lift by Sunday.
Meanwhile, government authorities created warming shelters, issued frostbite and hypothermia warnings, and advised residents to stay inside.
According to the website poweroutage.us, 18,000 people in Maine and New York State were without power on Saturday morning; by the afternoon, all but 5,000 had power restored.
A city spokeswoman in Portland, Maine, said 92 individuals showed up seeking warmth overnight on Friday and into Saturday morning at a shelter designed to handle 75 people.
Chairs were brought up to accommodate the increased attendance.It was calm early Saturday morning inside Boston's South Station, the downtown rail hub that had been left unsecured overnight to give emergency refuge on Friday and Saturday.
Dozens of people wrapped in sleeping bags, quilts, fibrous blankets, and even trash bags slept against the station's walls and benches. Others stood in front of the timetable board, waiting for delayed trains.
Related article: US Weather Forecast: California Braces for Severe Rains, Storms, and Possible Flooding As US Nears Halfway of Meteorological Winter
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