Northeast US and Canada gripped by arctic blast as forecasters issue frostbite warnings
- Atop of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the wind chill factor reached minus 78 degrees Celsius overnight, the National Weather Service said
- Extreme weather warnings covering several million people were in effect across much of New England, Quebec and eastern Canada
A “generational” arctic blast brought dangerously cold temperatures to swathes of the northeastern United States and Canada on Saturday, with forecasters warning that frostbite can occur in just five minutes.
Atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire state, the wind chill factor reached minus 78 degrees Celsius (minus 108 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
That broke the previous low recorded there of minus 74 degrees Celsius, the Weather Channel said.
At almost 6,300ft (1,920 metres), Mount Washington is the highest peak in northeast America and is known for having some of the world’s worst weather.
Temperatures of minus 43 degrees Celsius and wind gusts of more than 110 miles per hour (177 kmph) combined for the historic low.
The NWS office in Caribou, Maine, said a wind chill of minus 51 degrees Celsius was recorded in the small town of Frenchville, just south of the border with Canada.
“This is an epic, generational arctic outbreak,” the office had warned in an advisory ahead of the front.
It said the chills would be “something northern and eastern Maine has not seen since similar outbreaks in 1982 and 1988.”