The northeastern United States and eastern Canada under historic polar cold

“Epic” and unheard of for “generations”: the meteorological services of the United States and Canada redoubled their catastrophic warnings on Friday in the face of polar temperatures likely to reach -50 degrees felt in the American northeast and eastern Canada subjected to an icy wind.

The northern state of Maine in particular could see in the evening of Friday and Saturday the temperature drop to -51 degrees Celsius felt, according to a bulletin from the National Weather Service (NWS) for the Caribou region, not far from the border with the Canada. “It’s an epic arctic (cold) snap”, never seen on the scale of a “generation”, in particular “something that northern and eastern Maine have not experienced since 1982 and 1988,” notes the NWS.

The “lowest level in decades”

In parts of the American Northeast, and this region of New England, temperatures under an icy wind “could reach their lowest level in decades or even a level never before recorded”, according to the NWS. On the other side of the border, polar cold alerts have been issued for eastern Canada, according to the Ministry of the Environment, which warned of the risk of frostbite within minutes.

The temperature felt like -41° in Montreal on Friday afternoon. The mercury could drop to -50° felt in the more northern regions of Quebec. White smoke, called “Arctic Sea Smoke”, was billowing over the St. Lawrence River due to the extreme cold passing over the unfrozen water. Strong gusts of wind hit the few passers-by in downtown Montreal on a sunny Friday.

Historical consumption threshold?

The electricity company Hydro-Québec was preparing for a historic consumption threshold to occur on Friday and Saturday and called on its customers to save energy.

In the capital Ottawa, associations such as the Salvation Army have distributed high mountain sleeping bags to homeless people not housed in shelters to withstand temperatures down to -40 degrees. At the same time, dog owners were asked to keep them warm. In the city, visibility was almost zero overnight from Thursday to Friday due to snowfall coupled with strong winds.

The worst of the cold and wind in the United States should hit overnight from Friday to Saturday, especially in Boston and New York, further south, where it could be -15 degrees. Before the temperatures rise again on Sunday.

Rain, snow, storms, polar cold and humid heat: the northeastern United States is subject throughout the year to extreme weather phenomena which are accompanied by loss of human life and material damage. The latest, during the Christmas weekend of 2022, a blizzard and a snowstorm hit the city of Buffalo, in upstate New York, killing dozens.

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