Northern Mexico health authorities on Friday reported four deaths linked to the freezing weather hitting the nation ahead of a weekend that the state-run National Meteorology Service (SMN) said could be the coldest in more than a century.
Three babies have died of hypothermia since the start of the year and a man of 65 died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a heater that was not switched off properly.
The nation's Health Ministry reported earlier this week that nine people died during the last quarter of 2009 of hypothermia and gas poisoning, during a period when Mexico's weather was less icy than at present.
Mountainous states Durango, Hidalgo, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi ordered schools closed on Friday in order to protect children from hypothermia and possible respiratory infections.
According to the SMN, the lowest temperatures were caused by the polar air of cold front number 22 which crossed into Mexico from the United
States, the nation's northern neighbor, late on Thursday.
SMN forecasters told local media that such temperatures, which hit -11 degrees Celsius in some northern states this week, were the lowest since
1886.
Southern Mexican states and the Gulf of Mexico are also experiencing strong winds known as nortes that bring disruption and cold to these traditionally warmer areas.
Speaking to broadcasters on Thursday, Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova urged regional governments to move school timetable an hour
later so that children would arrive when facilities are warmer.