Cold snap in U.S. begins to ease, a bit

Vietnam Tribune Saturday 17th January, 2004

Residents of the Northeast and the Midwest began emerging Saturday from record-breaking cold weather that killed at least seven people.

Among the victims were a hiker who died of hypothermia in New Hampshire, and a woman found dead in the snow on Long Island, the New York Times reported.

Temperatures dropped so low Thursday and Friday that schools closed, including hundreds of districts and private schools in Massachusetts, where some children suffered frostbite symptoms and authorities feared more would be stricken walking to school or waiting for the bus.

Temperature records were broken in Boston, Providence, R.I., and Burlington, Vt., surprising even those who typically shrug off the chill of a New England winter.

On Mount Washington in New Hampshire, temperatures reached minus 45, breaking the record of minus 42 set in 1994. The wind chill brought by winds of up to 103 miles an hour made it feel like minus 87 degrees, the National Weather Service reported.

On Saturday, temperatures had risen to seasonal norms of double digits, the National Weather Service reported.