A dangerous combination of record-setting cold temperatures and powerful winds hit the northeastern United States on Saturday, causing life-threatening temperatures and the death of an infant in Massachusetts.
New Hampshire’s Mount Washington recorded an overnight wind chill – a measure of how the combined effect of wind and wind feels on the skin – of minus 108 °F (-78 °C), the highest in the United States. It was the lowest temperature ever. Air temperatures at the peak reached minus 47 degrees F (-44 C), with winds gusting to 100 mph (160 kph), according to the Mount Washington Observatory.
Strong winds downed a tree on a car in Southwick, Massachusetts, crushing the vehicle and killing an infant passenger, the Hampden District Attorney said in a statement. The seriously injured driver was taken to the hospital.
The NWS said that in Boston, where officials closed the public school system on Friday because of an impending cold snap, the low temperature dropped to minus 10 degrees F (-23 C), breaking the record for the day. In Providence, Rhode Island, the mercury dropped to minus 9 degrees F (-23 C), well below the previous all-time low of minus 2 degrees F (-19 C), set in 1918.