NORTHEAST ENVELOPED IN DANGEROUSLY COLD TEMPS

Wind chill plunges to nearly minus 110 at N.H. mountain peak

People across the northeastern United States confronted the coldest temperatures seen in decades Saturday, as an Arctic air mass passed over the region, accompanied by powerful winds that drove wind chills to dangerous levels.

Frigid conditions demolished records set more than a century ago in Boston and Providence, R.I., where lows hit minus 10 and minus 9 degrees Fahrenheit early Saturday, the National Weather Service reported. Temperatures plunged to 4 degrees in New York City, minus 6 in Hartford, Conn., and minus 15 in Concord, N.H.. with the wind making it feel much colder everywhere.

At least one death was attributed to the weather system. In western Massachusetts on Friday, a tree fell and crushed a vehicle in Southwick, west of Springfield, and killed an infant passenger. The 23-year-old driver, the victim’s aunt, suffered serious injuries, according to a statement from the office of the district attorney in Hampden County.

At the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the region’s highest peak, the low of minus 47 degrees at 4 a.m. Saturday tied the previous record set in 1934. Wind chills approached minus 110 degrees, and were likely among the coldest ever recorded, though staff at the weather observatory atop the 6,288-foot peak said they do not keep long-term wind chill data, and could not confirm the record.

Venturing outside onto the mountain to track the system Friday, Francis Tarasiewicz, a staff meteorologist at the Mount Washington Observatory, encountered wind that sounded like a roaring freight train. “There were pieces of ice flying around, lots of ducking and dodging,” he said. “I had a tiny, millimeter-wide area of skin exposure, and it felt like a bee sting.”

Conditions moderated by late Saturday, and the deep cold was expected to subside by today. In the meantime, government officials opened warming shelters, issued warnings about frostbite and hypothermia, and urged people to stay inside. Saturday morning, 18,000 customers in Maine and New York state were without electricity, according to the website poweroutage.us; by afternoon, power had been restored to all but 5,000.

“This is one of the coldest events that we’ve seen in years,” said Miro Weinberger, mayor of Burlington, Vt. “We’re encouraging people to stay indoors.”

Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston declared a cold emergency through today, while in New York, a Code Blue was in effect, meaning that no one seeking shelter would be denied.

Concern about the fate of people living on the streets spurred an all-hands outreach effort in Boston, where dozens of city and agency workers fanned out last week to urge those without housing to plan for the cold. In the end, only 10 people chose to spend Friday night outdoors in the city’s largest tent encampment, while more than 100 others were safely sheltered, said Tania Del Rio, director of the city’s coordinated response team.

“We were very worried,” Del Rio said. “We know these people by name. We know their stories and we care about them, and we know some people would rather stay outside.”