An intense arctic cold front hit the northeastern United States on Friday, threatening to drop temperatures in many places, including Mount Washington in New Hampshire, where wind chill can bring temperatures to -79 degrees Celsius , said meteorologists.

In the cities of Boston and Worcester, the two largest cities in the so-called New England region, schools were closed on Friday due to concerns about the risk of hypothermia and frostbite while children waited the bus or walked to school.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a state of emergency until Sunday and opened heating centers to help the city’s more than 650,000 residents cope with what the NWS has warned that it could turn into a “one-in-a-generation cold front”.

The forecast of severe cold has forced the rare closure of a floating museum that features a daily re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when settlers dressed as Native Americans dumped king-taxed crates of tea into the harbor. ‘England.

Early Friday, the core of the cold air mass, driven from the Canadian Arctic toward the United States by high-altitude air currents, was centered over the American plains, meteorologist Bob Oravec said.

“It’s moving northeast” and temperatures will drop throughout the day on Friday, he said. “It’s the biggest story of the day.”

At Mount Washington State Park, the highest peak in the northeast, temperatures are expected to drop to a record -46 degrees Celsius on Friday, New Hampshire Park Service officials said. By comparison, air temperatures at Eureka, Canada’s northernmost Arctic weather station, hovered around -41°C Friday morning.

The temperature in Boston was around -6°C Friday morning, with temperatures expected to drop throughout the day and hit -19°C by midnight. In Worcester, Mass., 40 miles to the west, temperatures are expected to drop to -25C before starting to rise again on Saturday.