Bitter cold grips Northeast as new Arctic blast looms

Bitter cold grips Northeast as new Arctic blast loomsThe bitter cold that gripped the snow-covered northern tier from Cleveland to Boston on Friday shows no sign of easing, as another arctic blast roaring out of Canada threatens to drive weekend temperatures to all-time record lows.

The National Weather Service said "dangerously cold temperatures" will slam the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest through the weekend, driving wind chill temperatures in some areas to below -60 degrees F.

The weather service warned that "wind chills colder than 50 below can cause exposed flesh to freeze in only 5 to 10 minutes."

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton announced Friday that all schools in the state would be closed on Monday. All-time record cold temperatures are possible in Minneapolis on Monday, according to the weather service.

The combination of arctic air with the gusty winds is expected to lower wind chill temperatures to the single digits over the Mid-Atlantic while areas of New England can expect wind chill readings into the -10s and -20s, the weather service said.

Before the full force of the Arctic blast roars in, another winter storm will spread snow and ice from the central Plains to the Great Lakes states this weekend. The heaviest snow is forecast to hit St. Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo, AccuWeather predicts, from late Saturday into early Monday.

The storm will also bring snow and slippery travel to much of the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, AccuWeather meteorologist Courtney Spamer said.

Much of the eastern half of the country is already reeling from Thursday's killer storm that has shut down airports and major roads and forced school closings in much of the Northeast.

At least 13 people died in the storm: Slick roads were blamed for traffic deaths in Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. Authorities said a 71-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease froze to death after she wandered away from her rural western New York home.

The storm — which brought plummeting temperatures as low as 8 degrees below zero to Burlington, Vt., early Friday with a wind chill of 29 below zero — dumped 23 inches of snow in Boxford, Mass., by early Friday and 18 inches in parts of western New York near Rochester. Ten inches of snow fell in Lakewood, N.J., and up to 7 inches fell in New York City.