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America is experiencing one of the coldest weekends

America is experiencing one of the coldest weekends of the year as Niagara Falls has frozen over and sharks are freezing to death in the Atlantic. The US is currently gripped by an arctic blast of air that has kept temperatures below freezing and brought record cold to some spots. A huge swathe of the country is facing numbing cold as forecasters warned New Year’s revelers from Memphis to Maine to expect freezing conditions. As far south as Charleston, South Carolina, freezing rain coated the city’s landmark church steeples, while the brutally cold weather has iced the northeast from New Year’s Eve through the new week of the year. In Boston, the weather has cracked railway tracks, causing chaos for commuters. Sharks have frozen to death in Cape Cod reported by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. Bitter temperatures and snow squalls have been blamed for a handful of deaths, car pileups and a rash of car thefts. About 30 crashes have been reported on icy roadways in Michigan, which has also seen large snowfall. A woman in a wheelchair who was forced off snowy sidewalks into a busy Omaha thoroughfare was escorted by a fire truck. The wind child was –28C that night. Police say an 83–year–old woman died from exposure to the cold after crashing her car in eastern South Dakota. As a deep freeze sets in across half the country, officials are urging people to help those most vulnerable, especially the homeless and the elderly. Forecasters are warning people to be wary of hypothermia and frostbite from the arctic blast that’s gripping a large swath from the Midwest to the Northeast. The prolonged, dangerous cold weather has sent advocates for the homeless scrambling to get people off the streets and to bring in extra beds for them. The Ohio Department of Aging says older people are at increased risk from such severe cold, from medication side effects to fall risks. The department is encouraging people to check on family members, friends, and neighbors. Animal advocates are urging people to remember their pets and not to leave them outside.

• Parts of Niagara Falls froze in midair as the water was coming over the peak, leaving sparkling icicles.
• Atop Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak, the temperature has hit –34 degrees with a – 89-degree wind chill.
• Weather observers tested the cold on the summit by pouring out boiling water, which turned into "snow".
• In Erie, Pennsylvania, a storm dumped more than 65 inches of snow in a span of 4 days.
• The 1911–1912 United States cold wave remains one of the coldest winters recorded to occur over the northern United States The cold wave started in November 1911 and continued into March 1912