Jan. 2 (UPI) — Record-breaking frigid temperatures across much of the United States may to be blame for at least eight deaths, authorities said.

Arctic cold plunged large swaths of the Plains, Midwest, South and East into sub-zero temperatures, over the weekend, the coldest recording in Embarrass, Minn., on Sunday at minus 45 degrees. Wind chills reached to 50 degrees below zero in parts of the Dakotas and northern Minnesota; Hettinger, N.D., recorded a minus 58-degree wind chill Sunday.

On Tuesday, the deep freeze dipped down to Texas, with a wind chill of minus-10 in Amarillo, and temperatures in the teens and 20s in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and other southeastern states.

The cold may be to blame for a number of deaths across the country.

On Tuesday, a pileup of dozens of vehicles on Interstate 90 in Lancaster, N.Y., killed at least one person. Lancaster Emergency Management said at least 75 vehicles were involved in the crash amid snowy conditions on the New York State Thruway near Buffalo. At least 11 people were transported to local hospitals.

The Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office suspects the cold played a role in the deaths of two men found dead outdoors Sunday. Also in Wisconsin, the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office said they think cold temperatures killed a 27-year-old woman who went missing after leaving an ice shanty on Lake Winnebago. They said she fell along the shoreline and likely died of exposure……more here