At least seven people have been killed in several states as US Midwest has
been hit by a cold snap known as a polar vortex.
The arctic weather made temperatures to fall to -22F in Chicago – colder than
parts of Antarctica – and -25F in North Dakota.
Freezing weather will chill 250 million Americans, and 90 million will
experience 0F or below.
On January 30, snow is expected to fall from the Great Lakes region into New
England. As much as 24in is forecast in the state of Wisconsin, and 6in in
Illinois.
States of emergency have been declared in Midwestern Wisconsin, Michigan and
Illinois, and even in the normally warmer Deep South states of Alabama and
Mississippi.
The National Weather Service (NSW)
is warning frostbite is possible within just 10 minutes of being outside in
such extreme temperatures.
Grand Forks, North Dakota, has seen
the lowest wind chill so far at -65F on January 30.
Twenty million people in the
continental US are expected to experience temperatures of -18F or lower by the
week’s end.
On January 30, two Michigan
residents were found dead in their neighborhoods, the
Associated Press reported.
Officials say one may have become
disoriented and wandered into the cold without proper attire.
On January 29, a 55-year-old man
froze to death in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, garage, with the medical examiner’s
office ruling he “apparently collapsed after shoveling snow”, local
media reported.
In Pekin, Illinois, an 82-year-old
man died from hypothermia outside his home, NBC News reported.
On January 28, a 75-year-old man was
killed by a snow plough near Chicago.
In northern Indiana, a young couple
died after a collision on icy roads.
The US Postal Service has called a halt to mail deliveries in parts of 10
states in the Great Plains and Midwest.
Hundreds of schools, as well as colleges and universities, have been closed
in the affected states.
Beer deliveries in Wisconsin have been hit, too, as brewers delay shipments
for fear their beverages will freeze in the trucks.
Weather officials in the state of Iowa have warned people to “avoid taking
deep breaths, and to minimize talking” if they go outside.
Farmers across the Midwest have been taking measures to protect their
livestock, including building igloos for chickens.
Animal rights organization PETA has warned people to bring pets indoors.
Meanwhile, police in the Illinois county of McLean had some fun, announcing that Elsa from the Disney movie Frozen had been arrested.
The Niagara Falls has frozen for a second time as the East Coast shivers in record-breaking sub-zero temperatures.
The American Falls has been reduced to icicles and a trickle by the polar vortex on Thursday, February 2015.
Photo Reuters
Incredible pictures show Niagara Falls partially frozen as chilly temperatures continue to bring snow and ice across the US-Canada border.
Similar images emerged last year when the falls, which usually see the passage of 567,811 liters per second, partially froze twice in a few weeks as temperatures fell to a record-breaking low.
Pictures taken this year show some parts of the falls and surrounding areas covered in sheets of ice.
Plummeting temperatures in the US and Canada have caused chaos for many but have created a spectacular sight at Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls hasn’t frozen over, but it has become an icy spectacle, thanks to a blast of arctic wind and cold that blew around and froze the mist on surfaces and landscaping.
Despite the urban legends, Niagara Falls doesn’t freeze solid in the winter, tourism officials say.
Plummeting temperatures in the US and Canada have caused chaos for many but have created a spectacular sight at Niagara Falls
However, a section of the American Falls, one of three waterfalls that make up the natural attraction, has frozen. The Niagara River rapids and larger Horseshoe Falls continue to flow unimpeded.
Visitors who normally see a thundering waterfall have travelled to see part of the cascades frozen solid.
The polar vortex that has left people in North America shivering for days, shattering century-old temperature records, is loosening its icy grip.
Temperatures are rising in the Midwest and East, which has borne the brunt of polar vortex, but are still below freezing in many areas.
At least 21 people have died since Sunday as a result of the weather, and more than 11,000 flights were grounded.
US natural gas usage hit an all-time record in the US to meet heat demands.
Forecasters predicted weather would return to normal across much of the US in the coming days, after 50 US cities set new record low temperatures on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service predicted “a much-anticipated warm up” for much of the eastern US on Wednesday.
The Midwest – which experienced -37C (-35F) in recent days – also warmed slightly, but still faced temperatures 15 to 25 degrees below average.
Atlanta, Georgia, returned to a more temperate 5C (42F) on Wednesday following a record low of -14C (6F) a day earlier.
The polar vortex that has left people in North America shivering for days is loosening its icy grip
New York City topped -5C (22F) on Wednesday, after shattering a 118-year-old low temperature record with -15C (4F) on Tuesday.
Temperatures in parts of North America plunged so low this week that they eclipsed readings recently recorded on the Red Planet by the Mars Rover.
Even Alabama’s top official was not immune to the extreme cold.
Governor Robert Bentley faced an estimated $50,000 in damage after a water pipe froze and burst in the attic of his home in Tuscaloosa.
Guy Walton, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel, told media that the worst of the Arctic outbreak is over.
“It will be getting dramatically warmer from today,” he said on Wednesday.
“By Thursday temperatures will be almost back to normal.”
Scientists also posited a silver lining to the cold snap, saying it could kill some of the pests that have ravaged northern forests.
The low temperatures may also slow the migration of invasive species and prevent erosion of wetlands, they say.
All 50 US states saw freezing temperatures as weather records have tumbled across North America.
The most extreme arctic blasts, blamed on a weather pattern known as the polar vortex, were said to have affected nearly 190 million people.
In Kentucky, an escaped prisoner turned himself in to get out of the cold.
Some parts of the Midwest hit -26C (-14F), as low as the Antarctic coast in winter, and much colder than the inside of a domestic freezer.
Temperature records were shattered in states across the US, including Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Michigan, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
It was -17C (1F) in the small town of Hell, Michigan, prompting online jokes that the weather was so bad even hell had frozen over.
But it was Embarrass, Minnesota, that experienced the lowest temperature in the nation on Tuesday: -37C (-35F).
That was colder than readings recently recorded on the Red Planet by the Mars Rover.
All 50 US states saw freezing temperatures as weather records have tumbled across North America
A video of a meteorologist tossing a pot of boiling water into the air in Wisconsin, to demonstrate how it immediately turns to snow, quickly went viral on the internet and was widely imitated.
The extreme weather resulted in the usual travel chaos – nearly 2,700 US flights were cancelled on Tuesday.
More than 500 rail passengers on their way to Chicago were marooned overnight into Tuesday morning in northern Illinois on three Amtrak passenger trains after drifting snow and ice covered the tracks.
The big freeze was even testing the resolve of Canadians, no strangers to cold weather.
Temperatures in parts of Ontario fell to -30C (-22F), causing flights in and out of Pearson International Airport to be halted for several hours on Tuesday morning.
Roads in the cities of Toronto and Ottawa were coated in dangerous black ice.
Freezing temperatures were recorded in all 50 US states, including the usually balmy California and Florida.
Even tropical Hawaii experienced -7C (18F), reports the Associated Press news agency, although that was at the peak of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano.
Atlanta, Georgia, was 25 degrees below average for this time of year.
People in the Midwest are still digging out from two massive snow storms recently which dumped more than 2ft of snow.
A reprieve is expected soon, however, with forecasters predicting temperatures above freezing for much of the US in the coming days.
A polar vortex hitting North America is now heading toward East, ushering in dangerous temperatures not seen in two decades, warn forecasters.
From Montana to Maryland, about half of the population has been placed under a wind chill warning or advisory.
In Canada, the province of Ontario is facing temperatures of -40C (-40F) with wind chill.
Thousands of flights have been grounded, and residents told their skin could freeze if they go outside.
People on the North East coast were warned to prepare themselves for the cold front sweeping in on Tuesday from the Midwest.
Temperatures were set to plummet overnight in New York and Washington DC by as much as 45 degrees, from unseasonably clement highs a day earlier.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that parts of major highways would be closed in preparation for the extreme weather, which could see the mercury plummet to -26C (-15F) overnight with wind chill.
The polar blast was threatening crops and livestock across the American farm belt, even in the usually temperate Deep South.
The sub-zero snap was expected to reach as far south as Texas and central Florida, the National Weather Service said.
Tennessee and Kentucky were forecast to receive several inches of snow.
From Montana to Maryland, about half of the population has been placed under a wind chill warning or advisory
The weather has been blamed for at least 16 deaths in recent days.
Meteorologists said some 187 million people in all would be able to feel the effects of the cold snap by Tuesday.
It has been widely blamed on a shift in the weather pattern known as the “polar vortex”.
In Comertown, Montana, on Monday the temperature sank to -53C (-63F) with wind chill.
The state of Minnesota saw the mercury plummet to -48C (-56F) by the same measure.
The South Pole, and Irkutsk, Siberia, by comparison, jointly basked in a relatively balmy -33C.
More than 4,500 flights were cancelled just on Monday in the US because of the extreme weather.
JetBlue Airways suspended nearly all operations at airports in Boston and around New York City until midday on Tuesday.
The state of Minnesota and the city of Chicago, Illinois, have ordered all schools closed.
It was so cold that even the polar bear at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo was kept indoors, CNN reports.
Public parks were also shut as officials warned that exposed flesh could become frostbitten.
In Illinois, the National Guard used 10-tonne military vehicles to clear up after several lorries jackknifed, stranding nearly 400 vehicles. There were no fatalities or injuries reported in those incidents.
Freezing rain also caused hundreds of flight cancellations at airports in Toronto and Ottawa.
Nearly 1,000 homes in Newfoundland, Canada, were still without electricity on Monday after a power outage.
The Northeast and Upper Midwest are braced for potentially record-breaking low temperatures as a “polar vortex” brings more freezing weather.
A winter storm has already blanketed areas of Canada and the north-eastern US with up to 2ft of snow.
The snow storm has been blamed for 16 deaths in recent days and the cancellation of more than 3,700 flights this weekend.
Schools in Chicago are among those closing as officials tell people to stay indoors on Monday.
Meanwhile, a plane from Toronto slid into snow as it turned onto a taxiway after landing at New York’s JFK airport on Sunday.
No-one was hurt in the incident but all flights at the airport were suspended for two hours because of icy runways.
The plunging temperatures result from the polar vortex, an anti-clockwise pool of cold, dense air.
Forecasters say temperatures in the north and central US could feel as low as -60F (-51C) with the effect of wind chill.
Authorities have warned residents to remain indoors, both for their own safety and to keep roads clear for snow removal.
The Northeast and Upper Midwest are braced for potentially record-breaking low temperatures as a “polar vortex” brings more freezing weather
In Canada, thousands of people on the island of Newfoundland remain without power due to a transformer fire linked to heavy snow.
“The coldest weather in years will be making its presence known from the Upper Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic region for the beginning of the work week,” the US National Weather Service said in a statement.
The states of Ohio, South Dakota and Illinois are among those set to be hit. Tennessee and Kentucky are forecast to see several inches of snow.
The weather service said “an incredibly strong surge of bitterly cold Arctic air” was sweeping across the country until Tuesday.
It is set to continue to the north-east, where residents are still digging out from the week’s deadly snowstorm.
It could bring some of the coldest temperatures in two decades.
In Canada, the temperature dropped as low as -20F (-29C) in Toronto and -36F (-38C) in Quebec City with wind chill on Thursday – the lowest seen in at least two decades there.
Heavy snow has also affected US states including New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Boston was said to be the worst hit with nearly 18 in of snow.
Schools have also been closed across the state of Minnesota for Monday, as well as for parts of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, among others.
Officials in Chicago, Illinois reversed a decision to keep schools open following criticism from a teachers’ union, according to the Associated Press.
State offices were to stay closed in neighboring Indiana where a state of emergency was declared in Lake County in the northwest, allowing only emergency or law enforcement vehicles on the roads.
The Green Bay Packers football team handed out hot chocolate and hand warmers to fans at a game being played in Wisconsin on Sunday. Doctors had urged fans to wear at least three layers of clothing.
Sixteen deaths have been blamed on the wide-ranging storm, according to the Associated Press news agency.
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