Bitterly cold weather sweeps much of the country
A record-shattering arctic freeze kept its grip on the U.S. Northeast on Tuesday, closing schools and affecting travel on the first business day of 2018, and forecasters warned the region could be walloped by snow later in the week.
Boston tied a 100-year-old record on Tuesday when it marked seven consecutive days that the temperature did not top 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-6.7 degrees Celsius), and people whose work kept them outside struggled to find ways to keep warm.
Officials throughout the region urged residents to alert social services if they saw people stuck outside in the cold.
“We want every resident to have shelter and warmth,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Twitter. Bitter cold was blamed for at least four deaths across the United States over the New Year’s holiday weekend.
Frigid weather had gripped much of the country for the past few days, breaking long-standing temperature records in cities from Omaha, Nebraska, to Aberdeen, South Dakota, but the weather was forecast to warm up in the coming days.
However, the higher temperatures were expected to be accompanied by heavy snow in the East Coast by as early as Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. (Reuters)
Photos from top: Peter Pereira/Standard Times via AP, Jack Hanrahan/Erie Times-News via AP, Andrew Harnik/AP, Frank Franklin II/AP, Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP
See more photos of bitterly cold weather in much of the country and our other slideshows on Yahoo News.
