Arctic blast grips Northeast, Midwest, won't let go for days

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Arctic blast gripped the Midwest and Northeast on Tuesday, with winds perilously pushing the mercury to 50 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (minus 46 degrees Celsius) and enough snow and ice to cancel schools and slicken roads.

"We're seeing some life-threatening temperatures in Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin," said meteorologist Mike Sowko of the National Weather Service.

"They are closest to the source of the cold air, which is from the Arctic and Canada," he said.

Winds blasting across the Great Lakes over the past few days into Tuesday also resulted in up to 18 inches of snow dumped over northeast Ohio, northwest Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

"Pretty much the southeast side of any Great Lake got lake effect snow," Sowko said.

Icy conditions were blamed for a 76-vehicle pileup on Ohio's Interstate 275 near Cincinnati on Monday, which killed a 12-year-old girl and injured dozens of people, authorities said.

Schools, set to resume classes on Tuesday after Monday's national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, were canceled in some states including Massachusetts and Ohio.

Wind chill advisories were in effect throughout the Midwest and Northeast on Tuesday, with last winter's unseasonably warm temperatures making this January blast seem even colder, Sowko said.

Winds drove temperatures down to 50 degrees below zero in isolated sections of the upper Midwest and to minus 30 degrees in parts of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and upstate New York, the forecaster said.

"The coldest morning is actually going to be tomorrow, Wednesday. It's going to be a few degrees cooler but the winds won't be as bad. It's kind of a zero sum game there," Sowko said.

The area will remain in winter's icy grip until the end of the week, when a snowstorm was predicted to move up the Ohio Valley and through the Northeast, bringing slightly warmer temperatures and a few inches of snow to New York, Boston and possibly Washington, D.C., Sowko said.

(Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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