US weather – 12 dead in -75F Midwest polar vortex amid INSTANT frostbite warning as 2,600 flights are cancelled due to freak snowsqualls
The polar vortex, dragging in arctic temperatures across swathes of the region, led to emergency measures in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Among the worst affected cities is Chicago – where daytime highs reached only a bitter -15C – leading to frozen pipes, roads turning to ice blocks and the threat of frostbite in just minutes.
NBC Storm Team 5 meteorologist Andy Avalos warned those in Chicago: “If you don’t have to go outside today, don’t."
He added: "Wind chill values are -45F to -55F which could lead to frostbite and hypothermia in just a matter of minutes to any exposed skin."
The lowest wind chill recorded was a teeth-chattering -77F at Thief River Falls, Minnesota, on Tuesday evening, according to AccuWeather.
More than 2,600 flights were cancelled on Wednesday due to freak snowsqualls – with more travel chaos at US airports expected on Thursday.
STRING OF DEATHS
In Iowa, the body of 18-year-old student Gerald Belz was found behind an academic hall in Iowa City just before 3am on Wednesday by campus police.
Belz's family told KCRG that doctors did not find alcohol in his system – and the National Weather Service says the wind chill around 3am was -46C.
An 82-year-old man in central Illinois died in the cold weather after authorities say he was found several hours after he fell trying to get into his home in Peoria County.
At least two people – including a 70-year-old – died in the Detroit area of Illinois on Wednesday.
A zebra died at a farm in northern Indiana due to the extreme cold gripping the region.
CHAOS ON THE ROADS
As many as 27 cars and other vehicles were involved in a huge highway pile-up in Pennsylvania just after 1pm on Wednesday.
The chain-reaction smash was blamed on a freak snow squall causing whiteout conditions on Route 222, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.
About nine injured motorists were taken to hospital.
About an hour later, a second pileup was reported on Interstate 78 near Hamburg, roughly 30 miles away.
About 14 vehicles were involved and injuries are minor.
There was also a 20-car pileup Wednesday in New York on the state's thruway. About 20 cars were involved in the crash between Buffalo and Rochester, state police said.
FlightAware monitoring service said the weather forced the cancellation of 2,622 flights nationwide on Wednesday.
A total of 1,359 flights are cancelled for Thursday – but conditions are expected to improve heading into the weekend.
The freezing weather has prompted the cancellation of nearly 60 percent of flights scheduled for Wednesday at Chicago's two main airports, O'Hare International and Midway International.
Temperatures in parts of the frigid Midwest were beating even the most frigid areas in the world on Wednesday.
The temperature in Minneapolis, Minnesota, plunged to -32C – warmer than the balmy -31.7C forecast at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica.
The intensity of this cold air, I would say, is once in a generation
As many as 139million Americans were under a wind chill advisory or wind chill warning as of midday on Wednesday.
Mail delivery was suspended in ten states due to the bitter cold – Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
As many as 22 states recorded sub-zero temperatures on Wednesday – nearly half the country.
John Gagan, a National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist, said: "The intensity of this cold air, I would say, is once in a generation."
INSTANT FROSTBITE
Officials in Iowa warned people to "avoid taking deep breaths, and to minimise talking" in order to protect their lungs from the freezing air.
The NWS warned that frostbite is possible within just ten minutes of being outside in such extreme temperatures.
In Chicago, where thieves were seen mugging residents for expensive warm coats – and police stations opened their doors to the homeless.
Kathryn Prociv, a meteorologist for NBC News, said: "Historic cold, unprecedented cold, these are all adjectives you could use to describe this.
"These are some of the coldest temperatures an entire generation has ever felt, talking about the millennials.
"A lot of these temperatures will be the coldest since about 1994, when a lot of them were just being born."
HELL FREEZES OVER
Such is the scale of the cold weather that Hell froze over.
The small Michigan town – well known for its Satanic name – is right in the path of the polar plunge.
Temperatures here reached a deadly -25C on Wednesday night – forcing businesses to shut down.
Groundskeeper Jerry Duffie told ClickOnDetroit: "It's a brutal day in Hell. It's colder than Hell".
POLAR VORTEX
The bitter cold is being carried by the polar vortex, a stream of air that spins around the stratosphere over the North Pole, but whose current has been disrupted and is now pushing south.
Including the wind chill factor, parts of the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Minnesota were due to see life-threatening temperatures as low as -75F (-60C) on Wednesday, forecasters said.
US President Donald Trump drew controversy with his reaction to the freezing conditions, urging global warming to "come back fast" in a bizarre tweet.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was forced to explain that winter storms do NOT prove that global warming isn't happening.
They added that severe snowstorms may even be more likely because of climate change.
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