In Blizzard’s Icy Wake, Intense Cold Grips US Northeast

A person sleds down a hill on Jan. 4, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York. The US National Weather Service warned that a major winter storm would bring heavy snow and ice, from Florida in the southeast up to New England and the Northeast on Wednesday and Thursday. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

BOSTON/NEW YORK—Street crews dug out snow-clogged roads across the U.S. Northeast on Friday after a powerful blizzard, as temperatures plunged during a brutal cold spell that has already killed at least 18 people.

Extreme cold will reach from New England to the Midwest and down to the Carolinas, forecasters warned. Temperatures were expected to be 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below average across the northeastern United States for the next several days.