Weekend Winter Weather: Cold Saturday in the Northeast
An arctic explosion in the northeast has been blamed for at least one death as dangerously cold weather is expected to continue Saturday in the region and parts of the Midwest.
Sub-freezing temperatures began to hit the region late Thursday and Friday. Winds blowing between 40 and 50 miles per hour made the cold as cold as below 60 degrees in Maine, said Bob Larson, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.
The situation will improve but slightly on Saturday, he said.
“It won’t be as windy and it won’t be as harsh, but it will definitely be freezing,” he said, adding that winds are expected to ease to 10-20 mph.
Meanwhile, a dramatic warm-up is expected in the Northeast on Sunday.
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Here’s what you need to know about the winter weather this weekend:
An explosion in the Arctic responsible for the death of a baby
High winds downed a tree branch that crushed a vehicle driven by a 23-year-old woman in Southwick, Mass., according to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office.
The driver, from Winstead, Connecticut, was hospitalized with serious injuries, but her baby niece died in the accident.
Saturday: severe cold in the northeast
The National Weather Service in Caribou, Maine tweeted Friday afternoon that the air temperature recorded at their office was 15 below zero.
Conditions in the northeast are not expected to improve much on Saturday as “a brief and intense burst of arctic air” passes through the region.
In New York, the overnight wind chill is expected to reach 20 below zero.
In Boston, city officials have declared a cold weather emergency. It is in effect until early Sunday morning. Like other parts of the region, Boston offered the homeless population access to 24-hour shelter.
Extremely cold air was expected to spread south towards the mid-Atlantic region, but a pair of warm fronts from the plains should make the forecast short-lived, meteorologists said.
Winter storm tracking
Sunday: A dramatic warm-up in the Northeast
On Sunday, the northeast is expected to warm to 20 to 30 degrees, Larson said.
“It will be nothing short of dramatic,” he said. “The cold will end abruptly.”
The following cities are expected to see highs in the 30s and 40s:
- Boston: high of 47 degrees
- New York: 49 degrees
- Burlington, Vermont: high 37 degrees
- Bangor, Maine: high 33 degrees
But as temperatures warm in the east, the Great Lakes region could face snow and freezing precipitation on Sunday.
Forecasts call for a clipper from Alberta to reach the upper Great Lakes by Sunday morning, before heading to New England, the National Weather Service said.
The system is expected to bring another salvo of snow to the upper Great Lakes and a mix of rain and snow to the lower Great Lakes.
The system could also bring light snow to northern New England on Sunday.
National Weather Radar
USA Today
