Brutally cold temperatures broke further records on the US East Coast Sunday, but an end to the Arctic cold snap is in sight with warmer weather en route, forecasters said. The deep freeze follows a deadly winter storm, dubbed a "bomb cyclone," which was last week blamed for at least 22 deaths in the United States, US media reported.
Parts of New York saw record lows for January 7, including four degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15.5 degrees Celsius) at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which went into meltdown Saturday as staff struggled to cope with a paralysing backlog of flights. The airport warned of further delays Sunday. Terminal 1, which serves the likes of Air France, Japan Airlines, Korean Air and Lufthansa, was closed to international arrivals on Saturday in an attempt to get on top of the backlog and contain chronic delays after the storm.
Ninety-four flights were cancelled at JFK on Saturday and 17 diverted, as the extreme cold and storm recovery "created a cascading series of issues for the airlines and terminal operators," said the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that runs the airport. "Airlines remain in recovery mode, rebooking passengers from cancelled flights and reuniting passengers with their luggage," it said.
"Frigid temperatures continue to cause equipment failures and slower than normal operations. Customers may experience residual delays, particularly for international flights," it added in a statement. Boston, which saw some of the heaviest snow from Thursday's storm, froze with a Sunday morning low of minus two degrees Fahrenheit (minus 19 degrees Celsius) - matching the previous January 7 record in 1896. Massachusetts marked three record lows on Sunday, with Providence and Worcester frozen at minus two and minus seven respectively, breaking records last set in 1912 and 1942, the National Weather Service said.
The bitter cold is forecast to remain on the East Coast Sunday with highs below freezing as far south as parts of North Carolina. Forecasters predicted ice accumulations from a band of freezing rain from Missouri through Ohio and Tennessee into the Mid-Atlantic, warning of hazardous road conditions.
But in New York, at least, the wind chill warning was lifted. Temperatures are expected to rise as the US financial capital embarks on a new working week from Monday.
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