CONCORD, N.H. - Falling temperatures replaced the weekend's falling snow Monday as bitter cold and gusty winds swept across the eastern United States. The National Weather Service had forecast that temperatures would be more than 20 degrees below normal across the Northeast, with wind gusts up to 30 mph and wind chills approaching minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit in northern New York and Vermont.
Atop the Northeast's highest mountain, the temperature fell to minus 23 degrees Monday morning and dropped to minus 31 later in the afternoon, according to the Facebook page for Mount Washington Observatory, in New Hampshire. Wind chills were hovering around minus 80.
In New York, Coast Guard crews moved quickly to rescue a 21-year-old man left stranded on an island in the Navensink River after his small boat broke down. The Coast Guard said two members waded through 34-degree water to bring the man to safety. The air temperature was 7 degrees degrees with 30 mph wind.
The weather contributed to multiple deaths over the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
In suburban Chicago, the temperature was about 14 degrees Sunday when a 12-year-old girl died after a snow fort collapsed on her. Police in Arlington Heights, Illinois, said Esther Jung had been playing with another girl outside Rothem Church. Their families began looking for them about an hour later and found them under the snow. The younger girl survived.
In Connecticut, a utility company subcontractor died Sunday after being struck by a falling tree while working on a power line in Middletown. Thousands of homes and businesses in Connecticut remained without power Monday afternoon as temperatures dropped below zero in some locations.
FlightAware reported hundreds of delayed flights Monday. And after a few weather-related delays Sunday, Amtrak restored all scheduled service Monday.