PROVIDENCE – A new wave of frigid weather began rolling into the Northeast on Friday and led communities to close schools and open warming centers. Wind chills in some higher elevations of the Northeast could drop below minus 50.
Across New England, temperatures began plunging Friday morning.
Providence was at 17 degrees at 3 p.m. Friday with a wind chill of minus 8. Wind gusts in the evening could get as high as 44 mph, which could drop wind chill factors to as low as minus 28.
The National Weather Service has posted a wind chill advisory across the entire state until 10 a.m. Saturday.
“The worst part of the upcoming cold snap is going to be the wind,” which has already topped 80 mph in higher elevations, said National Weather Service lead forecaster Bob Oravec. Frigid wind chills – the combined effect of wind and cold air on exposed skin – are expected Saturday.
The worst wind chills in the populated areas of the Northeast shouldn’t go lower than minus 40, he said.
Wind gusts began cutting power Friday to some homes in New England, and many communities opened warming shelters, including in Maine and Connecticut.
Some ski areas in the two states scaled back operations, eliminating night skiing or reducing lift operations. In Maine, a popular weekend pond hockey tournament was postponed, and the National Toboggan Championship pushed Saturday’s races back by a day.
Schools closed Friday in Providence, Boston and Manchester, N.H. “In these conditions, frostbite can develop in as little as 30 minutes,” an announcement on the Manchester district’s website read. “This is simply too cold for students who walk home.”
Some of the most extreme weather was expected atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak and home to a weather observatory, where winds gusted to nearly 100 mph and wind chills could reach minus 100.
The system is expected to move out of the region Sunday with temperatures rising into the 40s.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.
