This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Brutally cold conditions are expected to envelop the US east coast most of this weekend, prompting wind chill warnings from Virginia to Vermont.

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Temperatures will reach close to 0F from Philadelphia to Boston through Saturday night, with wind chills making it feel like -10F (-23C) to -20F (-29C). Even more temperate locations will not escape the cold, with the mercury dipping into the single digits in Baltimore and Washington DC – about 20F below normal for this time of year.

The blast of cold air, which comes just days after a storm dumped as much as 18in (46cm) of snow in some places, could bring the feeling of real jaw-clenching temperatures to people living further north.

At least 10 people died in weather-related accidents surrounding the storm. Many Massachusetts coastal communities experienced damaging flooding.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said on Friday that temperatures in the Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts could seem like -35F (-37C), parts of New Hampshire and Maine could experience -45F (-43C), and Vermont’s mountain regions could feel like -50F (-46C).

“It’s definitely cold and the type of bone-chilling cold that happens every few years,” said Dan Hofmann, a meteorologist with the NWS in Baltimore. He added that the last time such extreme cold occurred was in February 2015.

The weather service issued wind chill warnings for various days this weekend for parts of Vermont, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Maine and New Hampshire.

These locations, however, will have nothing on the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The Mount Washington Observatory, on its website , predicted the mountain’s highest summits could see wind chills of -100F (-73C) into Saturday.

Early next week, more seasonable weather is expected to return with temperatures in the high 30s and near 40s.

Thursday’s storm caused school and business closings, airline and rail service cancellations or reductions and thousands of utilities outages, many of them restored quickly. Some ferry services also had to be shut down. Flights resumed at airports along the east coast after hundreds were canceled Thursday.

Massachusetts officials said the storm caused more than a million gallons of untreated sewage to spill into Nantucket Harbor after a huge sewer main break. In Gloucester, north of Boston, an estimated 50 cars were destroyed in a school parking lot after a storm surge submerged the lot under a few feet of salt water.

In Newark, New Jersey, gusty winds carried flames from a vacant building across the street to two other buildings on Friday morning. The flames also spread to two structures adjacent to the vacant building, damaging a total of five. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.

Across New England, powerful winds brought coastal flooding that reached historic levels in some communities. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed on Friday that water levels in Boston broke the record set during a massive blizzard in 1978.

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The flooding sent large trash containers floating down Boston streets, forced the shutdown of a subway station as water cascaded down the steps and prompted rescues of people trapped in cars and homes by rapidly rising waters in several Massachusetts communities.

In Scituate, south of Boston, residents were spending Friday trying to dry out their basements before more frigid temperatures arrived.

At least 10 people died in weather-related accidents, including a 13-year-old girl who was sickened by carbon monoxide in an apartment building in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

In Massachusetts, a worker suffered cardiac arrest and died on Friday while clearing snow at a Massachusetts Water Resources Authority facility. Two people died of cardiac arrest during the storm on Thursday on New York’s Long Island, officials said. In Maine, authorities on Friday said they’re still searching for a clammer who disappeared during the blizzard.