arctic temperatures
“Only once in a generation”: Polar air causes record cold and frost quakes in the USA and Canada
Pedestrians brave the extreme cold on Saturday in New York, in the eastern United States
© ZUMA Wire / Imago Images
In the east of the USA and Canada, polar air currents with strong gusts of wind have caused extreme cold and frost quakes. Temperatures fell to record lows. The speech was in advance of arctic cold, as it occurs “only once in a generation”.
Parts of the US and Canada experienced unusually severe cold weather over the weekend. At the summit of Mount Washington in the northeastern US state of New Hampshire, the so-called wind chill temperature, which is influenced by the wind, fell to minus 78 degrees Celsius on Saturday night (local time) according to the US weather agency NWS – according to the agency, the lowest in the USA per measured value. According to the NWS, so-called frost quakes were also observed in the region, earthquakes caused by extreme cold.
According to the US broadcaster CNN, the new wind chill record measured on Mount Washington was below the previous low of minus 76 degrees Celsius, which had been measured in Alaska. 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 notorious for its extreme weather conditions.
USA: State of Maine experiences frost levels not seen since 1980s
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 is on the border with Canada. According to the NWS, such temperatures can lead to frostbite on unprotected skin within five minutes.
In addition, so-called frost quakes were reported from the region. According to the NWS, these tremors on the earth’s surface are caused by sudden cracks in frozen ground or frozen water in the bedrock.
Before the cold snap, the US weather agency had warned of arctic cold that “only occurs once in a generation”. The state of Maine has not experienced a similar frost since the 1980s.
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However, temperatures were also as much as 15 degrees below seasonal averages across much of the U.S. Northwest and the Atlantic Seaboard, according to the NWS. There were weather warnings due to the extremely low temperatures, as well as in the Canadian province of Québec and other parts of eastern Canada. A wind chill temperature of minus 41 degrees was measured at the airport in Montréal, and minus 34 degrees in Boston. In New York City, minus 16 degrees were measured in Central Park. During the course of Sunday, warmer air masses should put an end to the extreme cold.