An Arctic blast that brought “frostquakes” to parts of the US saw the country record its lowest ever wind-chill temperature, meteorologists said on Saturday.
Atop Mount Washington in the northeastern state of New Hampshire, the wind-chill factor reached minus-78°C overnight, the US National Weather Service (NWS) said.
The service’s office in the town of Gray, Maine, wrote on Twitter that it set a new US record for the lowest wind-chill temperature in the US.
Photo: AP
CNN reported that it broke the previous record of minus-76°C set in Alaska. The previous low at Mount Washington was minus-74°C, recorded there in 2004, the Weather Channel said.
At almost 1,920m, Mount Washington is the highest peak in the northeastern US, and is known for having some of the world’s worst weather.
Temperatures of minus-43°C and wind gusts of more than 177kph combined for the historic low.
The NWS office in Caribou, Maine, said a wind chill of minus-51°C was recorded in the small town of Frenchville, just south of the border with Canada.
The office said they had received reports of “frostquakes,” also called “cryoseisms,” in the region.
“Just like earthquakes, [they] generate tremors, thundering sensations. These are caused by sudden cracks in frozen soil or underground water when it’s very cold,” the NWS office wrote on Twitter.
Ahead of the blast, it had warned of an “epic, generational Arctic outbreak.”
The NWS said the chills would be “something northern and eastern Maine has not seen since similar outbreaks in 1982 and 1988.”
“Most stations are forecast to see their lowest wind chills in decades or, in some cases, the lowest ever recorded,” the service added.
Extreme weather warnings covering several million people were in effect across much of New England, Quebec and eastern Canada.
A wind chill factor of minus-41°C was measured at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
In Boston, the low temperature hit minus-23°C, shattering the record set more than a century ago, the NWS said.
Warmer air was due to move into the region late yesterday.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique