Arctic weather brings misery to parts of US as death toll rises to 55

People walks across a snowy athletics field in front of a temporary shelter for migrants on Randall’s Island in New York (Seth Wenig/AP)

Arctic weather has brought misery to much of the US on Saturday, especially for people unaccustomed to such bitter cold in places like Memphis where residents were urged to boil water after freezing temperatures broke water mains.

The bracing weekend weather follows a series of storms over the past week that are blamed for at least 55 deaths around the country, many of them involving hypothermia or road accidents.