Wind Chill Drops Northeast to 62 Below : Frost Nips Florida; 18-Inch Snowfall Shuts Down Pierre, S.D.

Blustery winds and frigid temperatures combined Wednesday to create wind chills as low as 62 below zero in the Northeast, and freezing temperatures stretched into Florida.

The worst snowstorm in 10 years hit central South Dakota with 18 inches of snow that shut down Pierre, the state capital. Some state employees used cross-country skis to get to work and others walked rather than try to free their cars from the snow.

50 M.P.H. Winds

The Pierre airport was closed while crews cleared the runways; travel was not advised along an 80-mile stretch of Interstate 90 between Murdo and Kimball.

The National Weather Service said conditions were very dangerous at Caribou, Me., where winds gusting to 50 m.p.h. combined with a low temperature of zero for a wind chill of 62 below.

“That’s very, very cold,” said meteorologist Paul Fike at the National Severe Storms Forecast Center. “You would freeze in a short time.”

Boston reported an early morning reading of 12 while a low temperature of 6 below zero and 25 m.p.h. winds made it feel like 53 below in Montpelier, Vt.

It was 11 below at Watertown, N.Y., and 9 below at Massena. The wind chill was 39 below at Albany. The wind chill was 15 below in New York, which had its coldest day so far this year.

Night after night, record numbers of homeless people crowd New York City shelters to escape the bitter cold. A spokeswoman for the Human Resources Administration said that 6,299 men and 891 women were housed by the city overnight and that 12,000 more bunked in other emergency shelters.

In Florida, it was 27 degrees at Jacksonville and 23 at Tallahassee. Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta reported lows of 25 and it was 23 at Montgomery, Ala.

Pool owners in Tampa, Fla., kept their pumps running overnight to keep lines from freezing.