Bitter cold weather has taken hold of much of the northern US as about 220 million face below freezing temperatures as New Year’s weekend kicks off.
Heading into the holiday on Friday, Americans were seeing morning low temperatures in the single digits or below zero.
And atop Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak, the temperature has hit negative 34 degrees, with a negative 89 degree wind chill as boiling water was seen turning into ‘snow’.
About 220 million Americans will see morning low temperatures in the single digits or below zero heading into New Year’s weekend
An arctic wind chill has taken hold of much of the US west of the Rockies. In Erie, Pennsylvania, a storm dumped more than 65 inches of snow in a span of four days
Atop Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak, the temperature has hit negative 34 degrees, with a negative 89 degree wind chill as boiling water turns into ‘snow’ (pictured)
Adam Gill, of the Mount Washington Observatory (pictured, Friday), said the previous record of -31 degrees was set in 1933
An arctic wind chill has taken hold of much of the US west of the Rockies. In Erie, Pennsylvania, a storm dumped more than 65 inches of snow in a span of four days.
‘This is a crippling snow event,’ Zach Sefcovic, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland, said on Wednesday.
‘They are no strangers to snow in that part of the state, but this much snow in that short a time is just unprecedented.’
Sabrina Ram drove into Erie on Christmas Eve to visit her parents just as the snow began to fall. Ram, who lives in suburban Washington, DC, and her father spent five hours on Christmas and two hours on Tuesday clearing the driveway.
‘In DC, we’d be out of commission for weeks,’ Ram said. ‘Things here are pretty much back to normal now.’
The winter blast in Erie was caused by cold Arctic air moving over the lake, which had relatively mild water temperatures, forecasters said.
A reinforcing surge of arctic air traveling south from Canada has been the cause of a great deal of frigid conditions.
Weather observers atop the Northeast’s highest peak say the temperature has hit negative 34 degrees, a record for the day.
Adam Gill, of the Mount Washington Observatory, said the previous record of negative 31 degrees was set in 1933.
The observatory posted a video on Facebook showing Gill emptying a pitcher of boiling water into the air, where it immediately turned to ice crystals in the cold and hurricane-force winds
‘Basically as that water is very rapidly freezing, since it’s starting off very warm, those molecules are a little bit more separated. And then as it’s freezing very rapidly, it’s basically going instantaneously into a vapor,’ weather observer Tom Tadham told WMUR
Forecasters warned of hypothermia and frostbite from arctic air settling in over the central US and spreading east. Weathers observers say frostbite can set in as early as 30 seconds (Pictured, Mount Washington Observatory on Friday)
The observatory posted a video on Facebook showing him emptying a pitcher of boiling water into the air, where it immediately turned to ice crystals in the cold and hurricane-force winds.
‘Basically as that water is very rapidly freezing, since it’s starting off very warm, those molecules are a little bit more separated,’ weather observer Tom Tadham told WMUR.
‘And then as it’s freezing very rapidly, it’s basically going instantaneously into a vapor where the gashes stay but as ice crystals.’
The National Weather Service reported International Falls, Minnesota, the self-proclaimed Icebox of the Nation, plunged to 37 degrees below zero, breaking the old record of 32 below set in 1924.
Wind chill advisories or warnings were in effect for much of New England, northern Pennsylvania and New York. Those places and states in the northern Plains and Great Lakes were projected to see highs in the teens or single digits and lows below zero for the rest of the week and into the new year.
Forecasters warned of hypothermia and frostbite from arctic air settling in over the central US and spreading east. Weathers observers say frostbite can set in as early as 30 seconds.
It’s been so cold that even sharks are freezing to death. Two thresher sharks were found washed up along Massachusetts’s Cape Cod Bay after being ‘stranded due to cold shock’ amid plunging temperatures this week.
Wind chill advisories or warnings were in effect for much of New England, northern Pennsylvania and New York (Pictured, people walk through a frigid Manhattan on Thursday)
The National Weather Service reported International Falls, Minnesota, the self-proclaimed Icebox of the Nation, plunged to 37 degrees below zero, breaking the old record of 32 below set in 1924 (Pictured, New Yorkers brave the cold on Thursday)
Two women take a selfie photo in front of a frozen fountain in Bryant Park on a frigid day in Manhattan on Wednesday
The cold has been a nightmare for cars on the roads. In Minnesota, more than 1100 crashes and 330 spin outs occurred this week
The cold has been a nightmare for cars on the roads. In Minnesota, more than 1100 crashes and 330 spin outs occurred this week.
Meanwhile, in South Dakota, an 83-year-old woman died from exposure to the cold after crashing her car.
KELO-TV reports that police believe Nina Bradenburg left her car to look for help after crashing on a gravel road near the tiny rural town of Revillo, just west of the Minnesota state line, on Saturday.
Police officers found the car first but with no driver inside. They found Brandenburg’s body in a ditch on Sunday, where she had died of exposure. The National Weather Service says temperatures in the area fell as low as two degrees Fahrenheit overnight.