‘Epic’ Arctic blast grips Northeast US, Canada
Forecasters warn that frostbite can occur in just five minutes; Austin mayor apologises for power outages
A “generational” Arctic blast brought dangerously cold temperatures to swaths 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 C overnight, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
That broke the previous low recorded there of minus 74 C, the Weather Channel said.
At almost 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 C and wind gusts of over 177 kph combined for the historic low.
The NWS office in Caribou, Maine, said a wind chill of minus 51 C 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.” “Most stations are forecast to see their lowest wind chills in decades or, in some cases, the lowest ever recorded,” the service added.
It warned that frostbite to exposed skin can occur within five minutes in such conditions.
“The dangers of being caught unprepared without shelter from the elements and without proper winter survival gear cannot be stressed enough,” the service wrote.
The NWS said the blast brought temperatures 10 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below average over parts of the US Northeast and the coastal Mid-atlantic.
Extreme weather warnings covering several million people were in effect across much of New England, Quebec and eastern Canada.
A wind chill factor of minus 41 C was measured at Montreal International Airport.
The Hydro Quebec energy company said the polar blast had sparked record high electricity consumption late Friday and urged customers to turn down their heating by a degree or two.
In New York City, a “code blue” regulation was in effect, meaning no homeless shelter could turn anyone anyway.
In New York’s Central Park, the mercury dipped to minus 16 C, the NWS said.
Wind chill temperatures fell below minus 34 C in Boston, where public schools were closed Friday as a precautionary measure.
Warmer air is due to move into the region late on Sunday.
Meanwhile, widespread power outages in the Texas capital stretched into a third day on Friday for thousands of residents following a winter storm that was spiraling into a management crisis as city leaders remained unable to say when all the lights would come back on.
Impatience among frazzled, freezing and fed-up families in Austin escalated even as milder weather returned.
On Friday, the newly elected mayor stood before cameras and apologised ater a week of slow repairs, failed technology and lacking communication with the public.
“The city let its citizens down. The situation is unacceptable to the community, and it’s unacceptable to me,” said Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat who took office in January.
“And I’m sorry.” While New England began shivering and closed schools under an Arctic blast expected to bring the coldest weather in a generation, temperatures finally started to moderate on Friday and bring some relief to Austin, where at any given time about 30 per cent of customers in the nation’s 11th-largest city have been without electricity since the ice storm swept into Texas late Monday.
City officials said on Friday that significant progress was finally being made as frozen equipment and roads thawed.
About 117,000 customers still lacked power, according to Austin Energy, the city’s utility.
That’s down from a peak of around 170,000 people, nearly a third of all customers.
But frustration was not melting away for residents who still had no assurances or sense of when their power would return.