Frigid air, high winds sweep across Northeast; 6 dead

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Falling temperatures replaced the weekend’s falling snow Monday as bitter cold and gusty winds swept across the eastern United States.

The National Weather Service had forecast that temperatures would be more than 20 degrees below normal across the Northeast, with wind gusts up to 30 mph and wind chills approaching minus 40 degrees (-4 degrees Celsius) in northern New York and Vermont.

Atop the Northeast’s highest mountain, the temperature fell to minus 23 degrees Monday morning and was expected to drop even more later in the day, said Adam Gill, a meteorologist with the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire. Though wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph were not particularly high for a location that once held the record for the strongest wind speed ever recorded, it was enough to produce wind chill values of minus 50 to 55 degrees (-10 to -13 degrees Celsius), Gill said.

“The big thing is to be prepared: Make sure you have no exposed skin,” he said. “Even being covered up, especially with gloves, your fingers get cold fast.”

In New York, Coast Guard crews moved quickly to rescue a 21-year-old man left stranded on an island in the Navensink River after his small boat broke down. The Coast Guard said crews arrived just over half an hour after the call came in Monday morning, and two members waded through 34-degree (1 Celsius) water to bring the man to safety. The air temperature was 7 degrees (minus-14 Celsius) degrees with 30 mph wind.

“Cold water and below freezing temperatures can complicate rescues like this and turn a bad situation to worse very fast,” said Cmdr. Rich Sansone.