As arctic blast sinks in, N.H. mountains claim 2nd coldest spot on earth

The Mount Washington Observatory predicted the mountain's 6,288 summit, which was pounded by 100 mph winds, could suffer wind chills near minus 100.

A man is reflected in a frozen window the day after
A man is reflected in a frozen window the day after a massive winter storm on Jan. 5 in Boston. 

The observatory said on twitter that the summit hit its coldest temperature at 6 a.m., tying Armstrong, Ontario, for the second coldest place across the globe. Only a research station at Eureka, Nunavut in far northeast Canada bested them, with minus 40 and a windchill of minus 50.

Those were the extremes, of course, but the wild, winter weather was plenty cold throughout the northeast on Saturday and is not likely to break until next week.

On Saturday, wind chill warnings throughout the Northeast hit Burlington, Vt., with a temperature of minus 1 and a wind chill of minus 30. Both Philadelphia and New York hit 8 degrees, with wind chills of minus 11 in Philadelphia and minus 9 in New York.

Hartford, Conn., shivered under a brutal cold of 10 degrees and a wind chill of minus 20.

Worse, temps are expected to plunge overnight to zero over most of New England, and perhaps even down to 5 to 10 degrees into North Carolina.

The National Weather Service said temperatures in the Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts could seem like a frosty minus 35 degrees, parts of New Hampshire and Maine could experience minus 45, and Vermont’s mountain regions could feel like minus 50 degrees.

The new arctic blast is moving in as areas along the Massachusetts coast are still coping with the after effects of a "bomb cyclone" of winter weather — reaching hurricane-force levels in some areas — that pushed tides to record levels around Boston and left ice mounds in downtown streets.