In the eastern United States and Canada, polar air currents with strong gusty winds caused extreme frosts. At the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire state in the northeastern United States, the so-called wind chill temperature, which is influenced by the wind, fell to minus 78 degrees Celsius on Saturday evening (local time ) according to the US weather agency NWS. – according to the agency, the lowest in the United States USA by calculated value.
According to the NWS, so-called earthquakes have also been observed in the area, earthquakes caused by extreme cold.
According to the American broadcaster CNN, the new wind chill record calculated on Mount Washington was lower than the previous minimum of minus 76 degrees Celsius, which had been measured in Alaska.
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It was caused by the combination of an air temperature of minus 43 degrees and gusts of wind with a speed of up to 177 kilometers per hour. At 1,920 meters, Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States and the mountain is known for its extreme weather conditions.
The NWS field office in Caribou, further north in the state of Maine, reported a wind chill temperature of minus 51 degrees for the town of Frenchville, which sits on the border with Canada. According to the NWS, such high temperatures can lead to frostbite on unprotected skin within five minutes.
Additionally, so-called earthquakes have been reported in the area. According to the NWS, these tremors on the earth’s surface are caused by sudden cracks in the frozen ground or frozen water in the bedrock.
Before the cold snap, the US weather agency warned of arctic cold as if it only happened once in a generation. The state of Maine hasn’t seen a similar freeze since the 1980s.
However, temperatures were also 15 degrees below seasonal averages across much of the northwestern United States and the Atlantic coast, according to the NWS.
There have been weather warnings due to extremely low temperatures, as well as in the Canadian province of Quebec and other parts of eastern Canada. A wind chill temperature of minus 41 degrees was calculated at the Montreal airport and minus 34 degrees in Boston. In New York, minus 16 degrees was calculated in Central Park. (AFP)
Moving into Sunday, warmer air masses are expected to end the extreme cold. (AFP)
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