Some parts of the US are seeing record-breaking windschill factor. It’s so low that it’s actually off the official charts of the National Weather Service.

The Northeast of the country was hit by an arctic blast. Temperatures at New Hampshire‘s Mount Washington dropped to a new low, -46F (-43C).

The wind chill temperature refers to how cold someone feels outside. It is dependent on the strength of the winds.

High winds of 96 mph on Mt Washington resulted in a wind chill factor (-108F) of -78C. This is comfortably below the lowest point of the National Weather Service (NWS) windchill chart, which is -98F/-72C.

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“Worst weather anywhere in the world”

NWS stated that Mt Washington, the highest mountain in northeastern US was “living up” to its reputation for having the worst weather in all of the world.

New Hampshire is among several states that are under wind chill warnings. This includes Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island.

Many properties lost power, and emergency shelters were opened.

Although the deep freeze will be brief, it is still expected to last for a few days. Schools in certain cities are closed due to the risk of frostbite and hypothermia.

According to one weather expert, the wind chills could cause frostbite on skin exposed in as little as 10 minutes.

Donald Dumont, a Meteorologist at the National Weather Service, Gray, Maine said that it was “painful.”

Boston, Massachusetts was one of the hardest hit cities by the freeze. Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston, declared a state emergency.

There are record low temperatures forecast for Saturday in the state. In Worcester, residents have already experienced lows of 3F (-16C) heading into Saturday.

Boston’s record low temperature is -2F (-19C), established in 1886. Worcester’s record low temperature is -4F (20C), which dates back from 1934.

“Citizens have been letdown”

As the southern states are recovering from another winter storm that brought rain, snow, and ice, the freezing conditions are moving in from eastern Canada.

Despite the warmer weather, thousands of residents in Texas were still without electricity on Friday night. Austin, one of the largest cities in Texas, has had 30% of its customers without electricity since Monday.

Kirk Watson, Mayor of the City, admitted that the city had “let its citizens down.”

The Democrat stated that the situation was unacceptable to the community and unacceptable to him.

Edward Kim, a resident, says he hasn’t had heat or power since Wednesday. The 43-year old revealed that he uses a generator to keep his house “on life support”.

Will Rison, another local, stated that his elderly parents were also without power for three days.

He said, “You can only wrap your body in so many blankets and then wait it out.”

Although no deaths have been reported from the outages, at least 12 people were killed by the weather this week on roads in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.