EASTERN Canada and the north-eastern United States shivered under "life-threatening" Arctic conditions as record breaking low temperatures led the US National Weather Service to issue wind chill warnings for several states.
The weather service called the sub-zero wind chill factors "extremely dangerous" and said that "care should be taken to protect yourself from the extreme conditions", warning that frostbite could occur to exposed flesh in just 10 minutes.
On Friday, 350 schools remained closed in Massachusetts and New Hampshire while ski slopes were closed in Maine. In Canada, which experienced record-breaking lows on Wednesday and Thursday, temperatures in Montreal improved slightly on Friday, reaching minus 34°C with wind chill factor.
In New York, already covered by 10cm of snow, temperatures plunged as low as minus 31°C. Temperatures in Boston dipped to a bone-chilling minus 40°C, with no signs of a let-up this weekend.