NYC CHILL KILLS

2 dead as temps plunge to near zero

One man was found dead on a Bronx sidewalk and another was found “frozen” in his car in Queens on Saturday — becoming what police sources called the city’s first cold-snap casualties.

Meteorologists forecast the brutal weather will give way to a relative heat wave later in the week.

The men succumbed in the morning after overnight temperatures dropped to 8 degrees and wind chill made it feel more like 15 below — at which point it would take just 30 minutes for frostbite to set in, said AccuWeather’s Frank Strait.

The Queens victim was found fully clothed inside a Jeep in Maspeth just before noon, when someone reported a suspicious vehicle in the area.

The car had been sitting there for days, sources said. The man was pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital, sources said, and cops were scouring surveillance footage from a nearby business to make sure the man had been alone in the car.

Hours earlier, at around 5:30 a.m., someone called 911 in The Bronx to report a motionless man on the ground at East Gun Hill Road and Young Avenue. The 51-year-old victim was later pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center, and police sources said he was likely homeless. The city Medical Examiner will confirm the cause of death in both cases.

The mercury was forecast to hit 4 degrees Saturday night, matching the 2014 record for that day. Cold temps in New York’s suburbs were expected to break records.

The cold, a result of the jet stream bringing North Pole air through Canada straight to the Big Apple, is sticking around a little longer, Strait said, with a predicted high temperature of 19 degrees Sunday.

On Monday things will begin to warm up, with temps hitting 32 degrees. But rain and snow will still make for a “rough” evening commute, the meteorologist said.

Forecasts warm more as the week goes on, with Thursday and Friday, downright balmy with a forecast calling for highs of 46 degrees.

“It might feel like a heat wave,” Strait quipped.