The arctic temperatures and gusting winds are responsible for at least one death as Friday’s high winds were blamed for the death of an infant in Southwick, Massachusetts.
The winds brought a tree branch down on a vehicle driven by a 23-year-old Winstead, Connecticut, woman, according to a statement from the Hampden district attorney’s office.
The driver was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but the infant died, authorities said.
The powerful arctic blast will bring “dangerously cold wind chill temperatures” to the Northeast through Saturday evening along with blizzard conditions through northern Maine, forecasters have warned.
The Arctic air that descended on the Northeast on Saturday brought sub-zero temperatures and wind chills to the region, including a record-setting wind chill of minus 108 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 78 C) on the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire.
On Saturday, Rochester, New York matched its record low temperature of minus 8 set for this date in 1918, federal forecasters said.
According to the National Weather Service, the following cities also set record lows for Feb. 4 on Saturday: Boston; Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, Connecticut; and Worcester, Massachusetts. The minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit temperature in Boston smashed the previous Feb. 4 record of minus 2 set in 1886. The minus 13 degrees temperature in Albany, New York, tied the record low for the date. Glens Falls, New York, set a record low of minus 24 degrees, colder than the previous record of minus 22 set in 1978.
“Temperatures will be 10 to 30 degrees below average over parts of the Northeast into the coastal mid-Atlantic,” the National Weather Service said in a bulletin.
Wind chill warnings and advisories have been issued across New York state and New England, it said.
The weather service added that high winds could bring power outages and damage property over the northern Rocky Mountain front and the High Plains.
In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu declared a state of emergency through Sunday and opened warming centers to help the city’s 650,000-plus residents cope.
