New York continues under an extreme frost that keeps the city at lower temperatures than in some sectors of Antarctica, amid the advance of a cold air mass that causes dangerous conditions and thermal sensations well below zero in much of the northeastern United States. This Sunday, the city registered around -16 degrees Celsius and a thermal sensation close to -26 degrees.
According to data released by meteorological services, thermal sensations close to –40 degrees Celsius were reported in several areas of the northeast of the country.In contrast, the American McMurdo station in Antarctica recorded approximately –6 degrees Celsius, that is, about 10 degrees higher than in New York City during the most critical moment of the climate event.
The marked difference was explained by a powerful descent of arctic air from the north of Hudson Bay, in Canada, which advanced southward and covered large regions of the east of the country.
The impact of the phenomenon led to the issuance of extreme cold warnings for more than 43 million people, including large metropolitan areas such as New York and Philadelphia.
Dan DePodwin, senior director of forecast operations at AccuWeather, explained that “in many parts of the Northeast, far from the coast, this prolonged period of cold is the most extreme in at least the last decade and, in some areas, in the last two decades.”
The expert added that “many localities will end with a streak of days below the freezing point that will be among the ten longest on record.”
Conditions were aggravated by intense gusts of wind and, in parts of New England, locally heavy snowfall associated with an atmospheric system that generated bands of precipitation with rapid accumulations.
In areas of upstate New York and far northern New England, records reached between –29 and –34 degrees Celsius. Meteorologists warned that, under these conditions, freezing of exposed skin can occur in less than thirty minutes.
In recent weeks, at least 17 people have died in New York City after being outdoors during the storm, and 13 of those deaths were confirmed as a direct result of hypothermia.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani explained that the city activated an operation to assist the homeless.
“All of this work is being done by city employees along with more than 550 community outreach workers who are on the streets at all hours to bring homeless New Yorkers indoors, connect them with shelters, with safe places and even with hotel rooms, to ensure that no one is left out,” he said.
In parallel, 60 heating centers were set up in the five boroughs, in addition to buses equipped as mobile shelters, with service points in high traffic areas, including downtown Manhattan.The authorities reiterated that even brief outdoor exposures can be dangerous and asked the population to contact emergency lines if they detect people at risk.
Although the episode was classified as one of the most intense in more than twenty years, forecasters anticipated a gradual improvement.
AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jon Porter had warned that “the combination of arctic air and strong winds could make it feel colder than at any other time this winter,” but confirmed that a progressive increase in temperatures is expected in the northeast and the rest of the eastern United States in the coming days.
By the beginning of next week, maximum values would once again be close to the freezing point, around 0 degrees Celsius, with a milder trend towards the first days of March.
