Vermont: Train equipment froze, cars sputtered, schools cancelled classes and cold-weather enthusiasts opted to stay inside on Monday as a bitter blast of below-zero degrees Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius) temperatures and -45.5C wind chills gripped the US Northeast.
The cold tested the mettle even of New Englanders, who pride themselves on winter hardiness.
Vast swaths of Canada were also in a deep freeze as Environment Canada issued a winter warning for much of the country, including warnings of extreme wind chills in New Brunswick.
Schools in western and northeastern Pennsylvania, across upstate New York and parts of Vermont and New Hampshire closed their doors or delayed openings to protect students from temperatures that dropped to -32 Celsius or even lower.
Amtrak suspended service between Albany and New York City, saying the extreme cold affected signals and switches. New York city doubled the number of outreach vans looking for homeless people in such cold, checking on street people every two hours.
In Providence, Rhode Island, temperature dipped to minus -18.3 Celsius early on Monday, the National Weather Service said.
Winter wear
"It's hard to get teenagers to bundle up, but even they're putting on their hats this morning," said Tim Scott of Fryeburg Academy in Maine, where it hit -33.3C.
Skiers said "no thanks" at some resorts. At Maine's Sugarloaf, where a ski lift recently failed in windy weather and sent some riders to the hospital, the combination of cold and wind caused operators to shut down lifts to the summit.
"We have a few people skiing — not many," said resort spokesman Ethan Austin. "There's a few hardy folks who want to get their turns in, no matter what."
In Toronto, weekend temperatures dropped to -20 C. David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, said Canadians are used to it.
"We're the second coldest country in the world, the snowiest country in the world, so we know winter. I mean people think winter was born here and we export it," Phillips said.
