A huge blast of arctic air swept into the region Saturday, and bringing with it the coldest days of the year — with deadly wind chills dropping as low as minus 25 degrees Sunday, forecasters said.
The mercury was expected to plummet to a jaw-dropping low of 2 degrees in the early morning hours Sunday, with a brutal high of 17 degrees for the day. Up to 50 mph wind gusts will make it feel anywhere from minus 15 to minus 25 below zero.
In those conditions, hypothermia can happen in mere minutes.
“If you’re not well protected; if you’re out there for more than half an hour, you’re going to be in trouble with frostbite and hypothermia,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tom Kines told The Post.
At least 17 New Yorkers have died outside since NYC’s historic cold stretch began Jan. 24 — and the cause of death for 13 of them is believed to be hypothermia, while another three died from overdoses, city officials have said. One person’s cause of death was not immediately known.
The city Medical Examiner’s office as of Saturday determined five hypothermia deaths with the remaining 12 still under investigation.
But Mayor Zohran Mamdani as of Saturday was still refusing to change his administration’s controversial policy on involuntary removals – which prohibits proactively clearing homeless camps or forcibly removing people from the streets — even while continuing to feel heat over how his administration is dealing with a recent snowstorm coupled with the long stretch of days with subzero temperatures.
Mamdani and his minions continued to dodge questions Saturday as the mayor’s schedule had him attending three events off limits to most reporters.
Instead, they sent out an evening press release boasting additional “emergency actions to expand shelter and warming facility capacity” citywide.
The city this weekend opened 64 new hotel shelters and 65 temporary warming centers – including public schools and mobile warming vehicles — to help frigid New Yorkers escape the cold.
However, some homeless New Yorkers told The Post Saturday they were unaware of the warming centers — or wanted no part of them — insisting they feel safer taking their chances in the deadly cold.
“It’s really cold out here. I don’t know where to go, but I’m not going to the shelter,” said Eddie, 50, while hunched over panhandling at the corner of Metropolitan and Jamaica avenues in Queens.
The homeless man was bundled up in a jacket, sporting an orange glove on one hand and holding a white paper cup to collect money with the other, which was gloveless.
“They robbed me. I got stabbed four times in shelters in my neck, my arms,” adding Eddie, who claimed “drop-in centers” are just as just as dangerous and filled with f–king addicts and alcoholics.”
He also said Mamdani is doing a bad job spreading the word about the short-term, emergency warming centers.
“The mayor don’t do nothing man,” he said. “This is the first time I’m hearing about it.”
Joseph Caraballo, another homeless man braving the elements nearby, also said he finds city shelters and drop-in centers dirty and unsafe – and never heard of the warming centers.
“Nobody told me… I’d be out there on the buses, on the trains, at the airport and in the cold and nobody told me nothing,” barked Carballlo, 47, while briefing ducking into a Taco Bell in Jamaica to warm up.
Temps will only reach a high of 24 degrees on Monday won’t finally break into the lower 30s until Tuesday.
“The combination of Arctic air and gusty winds could make it feel colder than any other point so far this winter for many in the region,” according to AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said.
The ruthless cold snap is set to break toward the middle of the month, when temperatures could reach a relatively balmy 40 degrees.
But the respite will be short-lived, with another cold front set to smack city dwellers in the face at the end of the month.
The arctic blast swooped over a huge chunk of the northeast and stretched from the Empire State as far south as Washington, DC, according to Accuweather.
Additional reporting by Rich Calder, Tina Moore, Marie Pohl and Jennifer Bain.
