N.H. Wind Chill Is Off the Scale : East Gripped by Brutal Cold

Brutal cold and gusty winds across the East today forced thousands of homeless into shelters and stalled hundreds of cars. On New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington, 100-m.p.h. winds and 35-below-zero temperature combined for a wind-chill factor that was too cold to measure.

The bitter cold numbed residents from Michigan to New England with temperatures as low as 20 to 30 below zero. Winds gusted to 25 m.p.h. and pushed wind chills to 49 below in some spots.

It was 35 below zero as hurricane-force winds over 100 m.p.h. whipped across the 6,288-foot peak of the Northeast’s highest mountain, said Jon Lingel of the Mt. Washington Observatory.

“The wind-chill factor is really off the official scale,” Lingel said. “It’s probably about 125 below zero. It’s not a good day for eating lunch out on the rocks.”

In Twin Mountain, N.H., it was 30 below zero and 25 below in Lancaster, N.H. Sub-zero temperatures stretched as far south as Bradford, Pa., where it was 2 below.