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Brutal US cold snap is freezing dogs, sharks and humans to death

People take selfies in front of a frozen water fountain at Bryant Park on December 28, 2017, in New York.

People take selfies in front of a frozen water fountain at Bryant Park on December 28, 2017, in New York. Photo: AAP

Water fountains have become ice sculptures and a man has literally frozen to death as the eastern United States shivers and shudders into the new year.

The arctic blast has brought record-low temperatures across North America and has caused deaths to those left exposed to the elements.

Forecasters have warned of hypothermia and frostbite from arctic air.

A homeless man froze to death while waiting at a bus stop in Cincinnati Ohio, according to leaders of a local organisation.

Sharks also went into “cold shock” and died off the coast of Massachusetts, while a dog also reportedly was frozen ‘solid’ on an outside porch in Toledo, Ohio.

The ABC reported the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy had found three dead thresher sharks stranded on the shore of Cape Cod Bay in Brewster, south of Boston in the last three days.

“This shark was too frozen to attempt a necropsy … a true sharkcicle,” it said.

The national broadcaster also reported the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had rescued more than a dozen sea turtles off the coast of Galverston Island that were “cold-stunned by freezing air temperatures”.

The lethargic sea turtles were found by fisherman and taken to NOAA’s Sea Turtle Hospital to recover.

“All 18 turtles were brought in for rehabilitation, where their body temperature was slowly increased prior to placement into water,” the group said.

The National Weather Service reported International Falls, Minnesota, a city that calls itself the ‘Icebox of the Nation’, dipped to –38 degrees Celsius.

The record was previously –35 degrees set in 1924.

Record snowfall has also been recorded in Erie, Pennsylvania, where more than 86 centimetres of snow fell on Christmas Day.

Officials warned a state of emergency when the town received another 62 cm on Boxing Day.

In New York City, it is similarly “cold outside”, with visitors and New Yorkers alike posing in front of frozen water fountain in Bryant Park.

Trump tweets about cold snap and global warming

United States president Donald Trump has warned it could be the “coldest New Year’s Eve on record” before mocking global warming in a Twitter post on Friday (US time).

“Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!” he said in the post.

#itssocold No.1 trending tweet on Thursday

Social media users have taken to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to share photographs and stories of the US cold snap, using the hashtag #itssocold.

One Twitter user quipped authorities in the US and Canada were seeking a woman for questioning, attaching a photograph of Elsa from the Disney movie, Frozen.

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