Mount Washington has record-setting wind chill
BOSTON — The Arctic air that descended on the Northeast on Saturday brought dangerously cold sub-zero temperatures and wind chills to the region, including a record-setting wind chill of minus 108 degrees Fahrenheit on the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire.
In addition to the U.S. record low wind chill, the Mount Washington Observatory at the peak of the Northeast’s highest mountain, famous for its extreme weather conditions, recorded an actual temperature of minus 47, tying an observatory record set in 1934, while winds gusted to 127 miles per hour.
Across the rest of the region, wind chills — the combined effect of wind and cold air on exposed skin — dropped to minus 45 to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the National Weather Service reported.
The current method to measure wind chill has been used since 2001.
“This is just kind of an Arctic intrusion,” said Stephen Baron, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. “Sometimes in the winter the Jetstream dips and the Arctic oscillation allows the cold air to come into our area for a day or two.”
The high winds were blamed for the death of an infant in Southwick, Mass., on Friday.
The winds brought a tree branch down on a vehicle driven
by a 23-year-old Winsted, Conn. woman, according to the Hampden district attorney’s office. The driver was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but the infant died, authorities said.
Most people heeded warnings to stay inside on Saturday, but some people ventured out.
Gin Koo, 36, braved the cold to take his Boston terrier, Bee, out for a necessary walk.
“I can’t remember it being this cold, not since 2015,” said
Koo, who was wearing three shirts and a down jacket, as well as a hat and a hood. Bee still shivered despite his doggie coat. “I wouldn’t go out if I didn’t have to.”
The emergency room at Massachusetts General Hospital treated several people for hypothermia overnight and a couple were admitted for frostbite.
“The reason that people unfortunately end up with severe frostbite in most cases is just because they don’t have anywhere warm and safe to go,” said Dr. Ali Raja, deputy chair of the emergency department.
Several cities, including Boston; Providence, R. I.; Hartford, Conn.; Worcester, Mass.; Albany, N.Y.; and Glens Falls, N.Y., set or matched record low temperatures for Feb. 4, according to the National Weather Service.
The good news is that the cold air is expected to move out of much of the region by Sunday, when temperatures could rise to the 40s.
“That’s quite a change,” the National Weather Service’s Baron said.