Texans on skates and sleds (and airboats!) make the most of the frigid conditions after winter storms

A day after a Texan made the most of a chaos of ice, sleet and snow that lingers across much of the U.S. South, as thousands of people endured freezing temperatures without power, a bitter chill is sweeping the Northeast.

More than 400,000 customers in Texas were still without power as of Thursday noon, according to PowerOutage, a website tracking utility.

The blackout and deep freezes inspired some more traditional winter weather hijinks when a young girl went viral for showing off some Olympic figure skating moves in the Texas winter while a man took his airboat for a spin in the wilderness weather.

Another video saw a dog struggling to get down a street, with the ice interfering with his walking. A young girl from Denton found a way to avoid walking as she slipped down the street on a baking sheet.

It wasn’t all fun and games, however, as a man struggles to keep his Jeep from crashing into another vehicle while navigating an icy parking lot in the capital Austin.

The blackout and deep freezes inspired some more traditional winter weather hijinks when a young girl went viral for showing off some Olympic figure skating moves in the Texas winter while a man took his airboat for a spin in the wilderness weather

The Arctic cold front is expected to move from Canada to the northern plains and upper Midwest and sweep the Northeast through Friday, bringing snow and bitter cold with wind chills greater than minus 50 in northern New England, according to the National Weather Service.

Frustration mounted in Austin, where more than 150,000 residents were left without power early Thursday, more than 24 hours after power and heating went out.

For many, it was the second time in three years that a February frost led to prolonged power outages and uncertainty about when the lights would come back on.

Unlike the Texas power outages of 2021, when hundreds of people died after the state’s power grid was pushed to the brink of total blackout due to lack of generation, Austin’s major outages this time were largely due to frozen equipment and falling trees on power lines.

The city utility warned that power might not be restored until Friday.

Pablo Vegas, who heads the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, vowed that the state’s power grid and natural gas supply would be reliable and that there would be no repeat of the February 2021 power outages.

School systems in the Dallas and Austin areas, as well as many in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee, closed Thursday as snow, sleet and freezing rain continued to penetrate.

More than 700 flights scheduled for Thursday have been canceled after thousands have been canceled since Monday, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.com.

Vigils and warnings of wintry conditions stretched from the western Texas-Mexico border through Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana to western Tennessee and northern Mississippi.

Icicles hang from the statue of Angelina Eberly in downtown Austin, Texas during a winter storm on Wednesday

A fallen tree blocks part of Rockingham Drive in Austin, Texas

Kelsey Vining of Richardson, Texas, gets a nudge from Court Vining as they sled down an icy sidewalk with dogs Mr. Riggins (left) and Gertie

Dallas and other parts of North Texas are under a winter storm warning through Thursday

The Texas man decided to take his airboat for a spin on the icy streets of Princeton, Texas

The Arctic cold front is expected to move from Canada to the northern plains and upper Midwest and sweep the Northeast through Friday, bringing snow and bitter cold with wind chills greater than minus 50 in northern New England, according to the National Weather Service

The treacherous driving conditions resulted in at least nine slick-road deaths since Monday, including seven in Texas and one each in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urged people not to drive.

The latest fatality occurred late Wednesday on Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma when a semi-trailer overturned and vehicles behind it, including several other trailer combinations, “cascaded” in separate collisions on the icy road, according to Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Foster .

Eastbound lanes were closed for more than five hours after the accidents, Foster said.

Public transit in Dallas is also experiencing “major delays,” according to a statement from Dallas Area Rapid Transit. The system serves about 220,000 daily passengers in 13 cities within the Dallas Metro, using a network of streetcars, light rail, buses and vans, according to its website.

Cold weather was heading for the Northeast on Thursday for an historic deep freeze, with wind chills expected to fall to the equivalent of -50 degrees Fahrenheit in some places, while freezing rain in the South left thousands without power and turned streets into ice rinks.

A Target shopping cart sits abandoned on the street next to a fallen tree near the closed department store after freezing rain blasted through central Texas

A cactus is covered in ice after freezing rain blasted through central Texas overnight with up to an inch of ice

A Southwest Airlines plane is parked at one of the terminals at Dallas Love Field Airport. Thousands of flights have been canceled since Monday

A young girl from Denton found a way to avoid walking as she slipped down the street on a baking sheet

Dangerous wind showers are likely in an area stretching from northern Pennsylvania to Maine, beginning early Friday and continuing through Saturday evening, the National Weather Service said in its forecast.

“The wind chills can potentially be a one-off chill,” the weather service said, urging people to either stay indoors or take precautions against frostbite and hypothermia. The wind chill factor describes the combined effect of wind and cold temperatures on exposed skin.

Record-breaking wind chills of -110 degrees and winds in excess of 100 miles per hour were expected at Mount Washington State Park in New Hampshire, atop the Northeast’s highest peak.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a cold emergency for New England’s largest city for Friday through Sunday, as the city expects sub-zero wind chills beginning Friday. Boston has opened heat centers to help people escape the cold.

“I urge all Boston residents to take precautions, stay warm and safe, and check on your neighbors during this cold emergency,” Wu said in a statement.

The cold snap and ice storms come as the famous groundhog known as Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Thursday, traditionally a sign of six more weeks of chilly weather in North America.