CNN —
Dangerous wind chills as cold as 50 degrees below zero are set to blast the Northeast as the number of deaths linked to an ice storm in the South rose to eight.
The mind-numbing wind chills set to wallop New England “could be the coldest felt in decades,” the Weather Prediction Center said.
More than 15 million people are under wind chill warnings or advisories in the Northeast. The alerts begin to go into effect early Friday morning and last through Saturday afternoon.
“This is an epic, generational Arctic outbreak,” said the National Weather Service in Caribou, Maine. “The air mass descending on the area Friday into Friday night is the coldest air currently in the Northern Hemisphere.”
Such extreme conditions can cause frostbite in as little as 10 minutes.
Fortunately, the brutal blast will only last about 36 hours. Temperatures across most of the Northeast are expected to rise by Sunday afternoon.
But farther south, cities paralyzed by a deadly ice storm this week got a final encore of nasty weather before a weekend warmup.
Here’s what’s happening in the South and Northeast:
The deadly ice storm that crippled parts of the South this week dumped more freezing rain Thursday.
About a quarter inch of fresh ice glazed parts of central and northern Texas, including the weather service’s Fort Worth office.
“We have about 0.20 inches of accumulated ice on branches here at the office,” the service in Fort Worth tweeted Thursday. “It’s an ice rink on these side roads and on our parking lot.”
At least eight deaths in two states have been linked to the storm this week, officials said:
• In Custer County, Oklahoma, a 35-year-old driver was killed Thursday morning on Interstate 40 when his semi-truck slid on ice and overturned, Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.
• In Payne County, Oklahoma, a 45-year-old man was killed when he lost control of his Ford F-150 pickup truck on an icy road Thursday morning, the highway patrol said.
• Three people were killed near Brownfield, Texas, after the 46-year-old driver of a Dodge Ram pickup truck lost control Wednesday morning on an icy part of US Highway 380 and rolled into a ditch. The driver and two of his passengers were killed, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
• A 49-year-old driver died this week when she lost control of her truck on an icy road north of Eldorado, the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN on Wednesday.
• In south Austin, a 10-car piled up killed one person Tuesday morning, the city’s fire department said.
• In Arlington, Texas, one person was killed after their vehicle rolled over, police said.
On top of the treacherous road conditions, more than 400,000 homes, businesses and other power customers had no electricity Thursday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. Most of the outages were in the Austin area.
Another 60,000 customers in Arkansas, 20,000 in Mississippi and 20,000 in Tennessee also had no power in the brutal cold Thursday morning.
But by Thursday afternoon, temperatures finally crept above freezing in parts of Texas that were covered in ice, the National Weather Service said.
“Most locations have reached above freezing with highs today ranging from the upper 30s in the north to the mid 50s further south,” the NWS’ Austin/San Antonio office tweeted.
The Texas A&M Forest Service warned residents to beware of melting ice.
“As trees across the state continue to be weighed down by ice and snow, keep in mind: Safety first,” the forest service tweeted. “Wait until all ice melts to assess your trees and homes. Though ice is starting to melt, it can fall off in chunks and become dangerous.”
More than 15 million people will be under wind chill alerts starting Friday as sub-zero temperatures and ferocious winds target the Northeast.
“The wind chills are something northern and eastern Maine has not seen since similar outbreaks in 1982 and 1988,” the weather service said.
The alerts cover all of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. They also include northern New Jersey, northeast Pennsylvania and much of New York state outside of New York City and Long Island.
The bitter cold is expected to move into the region Friday morning, and the coldest temperatures are expected Friday night and Saturday morning.
Temperatures will plummet below zero degrees Fahrenheit in much of New York state and New England. In northern New York and northern New England, temperatures will dip to 15 to 25 degrees below zero.
But vicious winds will make the air feel even colder – with wind chills plunging to minus 35 to minus 50 degrees in northern New York state and northern New England.
“Avoid any outdoor activities on Friday and Saturday!” the New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management posted on Facebook. “Cold temperatures paired with the wind chill factor could lead to potentially life-threatening conditions outdoors.”
New York City could endure wind chills as low as 10 degrees below zero.
“New Yorkers across the state will experience dangerously cold temperatures and life-threatening wind chills this weekend,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Thursday.
“Now is the time to prepare: plan to limit your time outdoors this weekend and know where to take shelter. Take all necessary precautions to ensure your residence is safely heated and use caution if you plan to use an alternative heat source, such as a space heater.”
And in Boston, where the air will feel like it’s 27 degrees below zero, the mayor declared a cold emergency for Friday through Sunday.
“I urge all Boston residents to take precautions, stay warm and safe, and check on your neighbors during this cold emergency,” Mayor Michelle Wu said.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont warned how quickly such conditions can dangerous or deadly.
“With the kind of severe cold weather that is headed our way, frostbite can develop on exposed skin in under 30 minutes,” Lamont said.
“Spending long periods of time outdoors in these conditions is not only harmful, it can be fatal.”
Shelters and warming centers are available across Connecticut, and transportation can be provided when needed, said Lamont.
Warming centers are also expected to be available in Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Vermont, officials said.
The agony won’t last long, though. High temperatures across the region will rise 20 to 30 degrees between Saturday and Sunday.
In fact, most of the Northeast – except northern Maine – will actually be above normal Sunday, with high temperatures reaching the 30s and 40s.
