Record-Breaking Cold Sweeping Into New York, New England

(Bloomberg) -- A frigid blast from Canada is sweeping into New York and New England, threatening to break records and bring some of the coldest air in the northern hemisphere to one of the most densely populated regions of the US.

Temperatures at Manhattan's Central Park will drop to 9F (-13C) Friday night, and with winds picking up throughout the region it will feel much colder, according to the National Weather Service. Boston could fall to -8, while Philadelphia will reach 10 and Washington will fall to 14 degrees. Boston schools are closed for the day.

A large, low-pressure system that's sweeping through eastern Canada is pushing the frigid air south. That same system will draw milder air north as it moves through the region. 

“It is some of the coldest air in the northern hemisphere, across northern New England, Quebec and the Canadian Maritimes,” said Rob Carolan, owner of Hometown Forecast Services, and meteorologist for Bloomberg Radio. “All day, the winds will pick up and the wind chills will get worse, they should be 20-below in Boston by noon and 30-to-35-below tonight.”

Biting cold can cause frostbite in minutes, cause sporadic power outages, delay ground and air travel, and drive up energy use as people crank thermostats to stay warm. The weather service has urged people to stay indoors. However, the frigid temperatures will be short-lived; by Sunday readings will rebound into milder territory.

Windchill warnings, meaning how cold a person will feel between the combination of wind and temperature, stretch across most of New England, upstate New York and into Pennsylvania. Another blast of cold is also creeping into the Great Lakes and Midwest.

In Canada, extreme cold warnings stretch from Manitoba to Newfoundland and Labrador, including Montreal and Toronto, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Atop Mount Washington, New Hampshire's highest peak at 6,288 feet (1917 meters), temperatures could drop to -50 degrees overnight, which would set a new all-time record for the weather observatory,

Winds on the mountain are expected to climb to 100 to 115 miles per hour (161 to 185 kilometers per hours), which would send windchills down to 100 below, according to Alexis George, a meteorologist at the site.

The air in the East is being compressed by the cold so much that a layer of the atmosphere known as the tropopause, usually 25,000 to 30,000 feet above the surface, could drop down to cover the top of Mount Washington, Carolan said.

“That is how cold it is,” Carolan said.

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