The gasp-inducing cold tested the mettle even of New Englanders, who pride themselves on winter hardiness.

"Snot-freezing cold," was how Kelly Walsh, 28, described it, walking home from an auto parts store in Vermont’s capital after buying a new battery for her car, which wouldn’t start Monday morning. It was minus 21 there at 7 a.m.

"I usually really like it," she said. "Today is a bit of nuisance."

Schools in western and northeastern Pennsylvania, across upstate New York and parts of Vermont and New Hampshire closed their doors or delayed openings to protect students from temperatures that dropped to minus 27 or even lower.

"It takes your breath away if you’re not ready for it," said Dan Giroux, shop tech at Northern Outfitters snowmobile rentals in Greenville, Maine, where the fleet was mostly idle because it was too cold for most folks.

In New York, the city doubled the number of outreach vans it sends out looking for homeless people in such cold, checking on street people every two hours.

"Our priority is to make sure they’re safe and warm," said Seth Diamond, commissioner of the New York City’s Department of Homeless Services.

In Providence, R.I., it dipped to minus 1 early Monday, the first below-zero reading there in six years, the National Weather Service said.

Even hat-shy teenagers were taking precautions.

"It’s hard to get teenagers to bundle up, but even they’re putting on their hats this morning," said Tim Scott, director of development at Fryeburg Academy, in Fryeburg, Maine, where it hit minus 28.

Skiers said "no thanks" at some resorts. At Maine’s Sugarloaf, where a ski lift recently failed in windy weather and sent some riders to the hospital, the combination of cold and wind caused operators to shut down lifts to the summit. Four lower lifts were still running, however.

"We have a few people skiing — not many," said resort spokesman Ethan Austin. "There’s a few hardy folks who want to get their turns in, no matter what."

Others took it in stride.

"We’re not disturbed by the cold weather," said Maude Gardner, of Allagash, in northern Maine, shrugging off a minus-24 reading Monday. After all, it was nothing compared to a minus-46 reading in January 2009.

"We’re not disturbed by the cold weather. It’s warming up. The sun is beautiful. It’s a winter day in Maine," she said.

The wind chill in some areas of New England was expected to make it feel as cold as minus 50. Wind chill advisories and warnings were also issued in upstate New York, including the Adirondack mountains, where Saranac Lake posted a reading of minus 36 early Monday.

In Philadelphia, a group of determined parents waited on a sidewalk overnight to enroll their children in kindergarten at a prestigious school run in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania. The Penn Alexander School eventually opened its doors, letting the parents in from the cold.

The cold, which was expected to hang around until Tuesday — just as a potentially dangerous snowstorm approaches the Northeast — was blamed for two deaths over the weekend.

In Lansford, Pa., a man died after spending the night in his car. His wife found 49-year-old Alan Kurtz on Saturday morning, after he’d spent the night sleeping in his car in single-digit cold.

In North Haven, Conn., a woman’s frozen body was found in a driveway Sunday. Denise O’Hara apparently fell and then froze to death Saturday night as temperatures hovered around zero, police said.

In Pittsburgh, a woman kicked her 12-year-old son out of the house without shoes, police said. Officers found the boy walking around coatless in the snow about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, with temperatures just above zero.

Authorities say the boy told officers his mother, 38-year-old Camella Cosby, had yelled at him and kicked him out after she came home from a night out. Cosby was charged with child endangerment. The boy and another child were placed in child welfare custody. Cosby couldn’t be reached for comment; a phone listing for her could not immediately be located Monday.

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers David Sharp in Portland, Maine, Randy Pennell in Philadelphia, Ula Ilnytzky in New York, Michael Hill in Albany and Michelle R. Smith in Providence, R.I.