Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Workers trying to restore power to more than a half-million homes in New England may get a boost from temperatures about 20 degrees higher than last week.

Crews from as far away as Ohio, Michigan and Canada joined local efforts to return electricity to more than 1 million customers cut off by the Dec. 11-12 ice storm, utility companies reported.

Predicted wind gusts today of more than 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour and continued icing of trees and power lines have the potential to slow work on downed cables, National Grid Plc said in a statement on its Web site. However, in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, workers may get some help from warmer temperatures.

“We’re warm and breezy for the rest of the afternoon,” Bill Simpson, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Taunton, Massachusetts, said by telephone. “The ice should be gone by this afternoon.”

Temperatures across most of the six New England states will be well above the freezing mark, Simpson said.

Boston reached 62 degrees Fahrenheit (16.6 Celsius) at noon and Worcester, about 40 miles west, hit 55 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Concord, New Hampshire, recorded a temperature of 57 degrees at noon.

George Wiseman, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Gray, Maine, said temperatures as high as 50 in New Hampshire and 40 in Maine will mean “some fairly decent melting.”

Shelters Set Up

Some 550,000 customers served by National Grid in New England and eastern New York lost power after the storm. States of emergency were declared in New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the Red Cross set up “warming stations” to help people affected by the cold.

About 138,000 homes in New Hampshire were still without power at 5:15 a.m. local time today, down from a peak of 322,000 on Dec. 12, Public Service of New Hampshire, a unit of Northeast Utilities serving about 200 towns and cities, said in a statement on its Web site.

In Massachusetts, 136,000 customers remained without power, down from a peak of 350,000, said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency in Framingham. The state’s numbers crept back up from 113,000 reported last night, Judge said by telephone.

“Obviously, big picture, we are working in the right direction,” Judge said.

Staying in Shelters

About 2,200 people stayed in 62 shelters in Massachusetts last night and 1,500 National Guard troops are assisting with the cleanup, Judge said.

In Maine, 39,000 customers were without power at 12-noon, down from a peak of 220,000, Central Maine Power Co., a unit of Spain’s Iberdrola SA, said in an e-mailed statement.

The company expects to have all customers restored early on Dec. 17, the statement said.

Maine Governor John Baldacci, a Democrat, asked that a federal emergency be declared in six counties, according to a statement released today. The declaration would allow the state to ask for federal money to fund the cleanup.

Vermont Governor James Douglas, a Republican, declared a state of emergency in four counties in the southern and eastern part of that state. In addition to clearing the way for applying for federal funds, the declaration makes it easier for the state to get help from utility crews based in Canada and other U.S. states, according to a statement released by Douglas’ office.

The region may bear the brunt of another storm in two days that may spread snow across much of New York and northern New England, according to private forecaster AccuWeather.com, in State College, Pennsylvania. Central Pennsylvania through western Massachusetts may see a mix of sleet and freezing rain.

Outside New England, weather forecasters were calling for rain changing to snow in parts of western New York, northern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio.

To contact the reporters on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net; Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 15, 2008 15:24 EST