Northeast US wakes up to bitter cold Valentine’s Day

Street photographers brave the cold to photograph guests arriving to the Alexander Wang Fall 2016 show during Fashion Week, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, in New York. With temperatures continuing to drop throughout the day Saturday, Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to stay safe and warm by limiting time outdoors, reporting heat and hot water conditions to 311, and checking in on vulnerable friends, relatives and neighbors. AP

NEW YORK, United States — For much of the northeast United States, Valentine’s Day was the coldest on record, with people bundling up for the not-so-warm embrace of teeth-chattering temperatures.

From New York and Boston to Providence, Rhode Island and Hartford, Connecticut, temperatures on Sunday morning dipped to as low as minus-40 Fahrenheit minus-40 Celsius — on Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

The National Weather Service said the temperature in New York City’s Central Park fell to minus-1, a record low for the date. The last time it was below zero in Central Park was in January 1994.

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“I’m dumb enough to do this,” exclaimed John Male before starting a 12-mile (19-kilometer) park run on Sunday morning with two companions.

“I just always come out and I just decided not to do anything differently” — except to wear a furry tiger hat with two tails over his normal headgear, in addition to four layers of clothing.

His running partner also was wearing a tiger hat on top of the balaklava that covered her face — except the eyes.

“It’s zero degrees and feels like negative 19; I’m going to sue him for personal injury after this,” joked Molly Manning, a Manhattan attorney. “I’m here because they peer-pressured me to come out today. They basically made me feel like I was a wimp unless I came out.”

Boston reached minus-9 F (minus-23 C), breaking the record set in 1934 of minus-3 F (minus-18.5). It reached minus-16 F (minus-26.5 C) in Worcester, Massachusetts, breaking the 1979 record of 11 below zero F (24 below zero C). Providence hit minus-9 F (minus-23 C) and Hartford minus-12 (minus-24.5 C), also breaking records from 1979.

In Montpelier, Vermont, the overnight temperature hit minus-19 F (minus-28.5 C), tying a record set in 2003. And South Lincoln, Vermont, recorded 27 below zero F (33 below zero C).

Temperatures were so low in some spots they knocked out utilities. A frozen regulator left about 400 customers in Connecticut without natural gas service and officials believe extreme cold in Vermont broke a utility pole, knocking out service to about 1,500.

The cold kept many people inside. In a New Jersey bagel shop that’s usually brimming with customers on Sunday mornings, Joe Weir was among a small handful of people who sat drinking coffee.

“I just came from a church service, and it definitely wasn’t as packed as it usually is,” the 60-year-old Toms River man said. “We have a lot of elderly parishioners, and when the weather gets bad or real cold like this, a lot them choose to stay in and watch a Mass on TV instead of going to church. Can’t say I blame them.”

Temperatures were expected to climb before a winter storm already bringing snow to the Midwest moves into the region.

The storm was expected to bring 5 inches (12.5 centimeters) of snow to parts of Kentucky and up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) to parts of Tennessee before turning to rain.

West Virginia could see up to 9 inches (22.5 centimeters) of snow from the storm before it heads into the warming northeast.