At least 1 is killed in brutal cold blast across New York and New England

Frigid conditions demolished records set more than a century ago in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, where lows hit minus 10 and minus 9 degrees Fahrenheit early Saturday, the National Weather Service reported. Temperatures plunged to 4 degrees in New York City, minus 6 in Hartford, Connecticut, and minus 15 in Concord, New Hampshire, with the wind making it feel much colder everywhere.

At least one death was attributed to the weather system. In western Massachusetts on Friday, a tree fell and crushed a vehicle in Southwick, west of Springfield, and killed an infant passenger. The 23-year-old driver, the victim’s aunt, suffered serious injuries, according to a statement from the office of the district attorney in Hampden County.

At the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the region’s highest peak, the low of minus 47 degrees at 4 a.m. Saturday tied the previous record set in 1934. Wind chills approached minus 110 degrees, and were likely among the coldest ever recorded, though staff at the weather observatory atop the 6,288-foot peak said they do not keep long-term wind chill data, and could not confirm the record.

Conditions moderated by late Saturday, and the deep cold was expected to subside by Sunday. In the meantime, government officials opened warming shelters, issued warnings about frostbite and hypothermia, and urged people to stay inside. Saturday morning, 18,000 customers in Maine and New York state were without electricity, according to the website poweroutage.us; by afternoon, power had been restored to all but 5,000.

Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston declared a cold emergency through Sunday, while in New York, a Code Blue was in effect, meaning that no one seeking shelter would be denied.

The weather service in Caribou, Maine, said in a tweet on Friday that it had received reports of “frostquakes,” tremors in the earth, similar to earthquakes but caused by sudden cracks in frozen soil.