Colder-than-Antarctica freeze grips US as Australia roasts

Chicago: Frozen Arctic winds brought record-low temperatures across much of the US Midwest on Wednesday, unnerving residents accustomed to brutal winters and keeping them huddled indoors as offices closed and even mail carriers halted their rounds.

Classes were cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday in many cities, including Chicago, home of the nation's third-largest school system, and police warned of the risk of accidents on icy highways.

Ice floats on the Chicago River in Chicago.Credit:Bloomberg

The profound freeze in the US came as Australia contended with record heat in its summer.

Paramedics were called to emergencies across Victoria in recent days, with the number of people suffering cardiac arrests and breathing problems increasing as the heat soared. Sydney is on track for its hottest January on record and a final burst of heat for the month could well have the data keepers updating their records.

The hot and cold extremes are a feature of global climate change, which drives more pronounced swings in weather and temperature.

In a rare move, the US Postal Service appeared to temporarily set aside its credo that "neither snow nor rain … nor gloom of night" would stop its work: it halted deliveries from parts of the Dakotas through Ohio.

Temperatures in parts of the Northern Plains and Great Lakes plunged to as low as minus 41 degrees Celcius in Park Rapids, Minnesota, and minus 35 degrees in Fargo, North Dakota, according to the National Weather Service. The frigid winds were bound for the US East Coast later on Wednesday, local time, and into Thursday.

Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the service, said some of the coldest wind chills were recorded in International Falls, Minnesota, at minus 48 degrees. Even the South Pole in Antarctica was warmer, with an expected low of minus 31 degrees with wind chill.

The bitter cold was caused by a displacement of the polar vortex, a stream of air that normally spins around the stratosphere over the North Pole, but whose current was disrupted and was now pushing south.

An Illinois police department found a fictitious cause for the icy blast, posting on Facebook that its officers had arrested Elsa, the frosty character from the Disney movie Frozen, for bringing the arctic air to the Midwest.

The McLean Police Department shared a staged photo of officers putting a woman dressed in a blue princess gown in pink handcuffs and escorting her into a police car.

Officials opened warming centres across the region, and in Chicago, police stations were open to anyone seeking refuge from the cold. Five city buses were also deployed to serve as mobile warming centres for homeless people.

The Chicago Police Department said that at most, it could encourage people to get out of the cold.

"But we will never force someone," police officer Michael Carroll said.

A pedestrian makes their way through frigid temperatures around Lake Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis. Credit:AP

At least five deaths relating to cold weather have been reported since Saturday in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, local media reports said.

Hundreds of flights, more than half of those scheduled, were cancelled on Wednesday out of Chicago O'Hare and Chicago Midway international airports, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.

Train service Amtrak said it would cancel all trains in and out of Chicago on Wednesday.

Most federal government offices in Washington DC opened three hours late on Wednesday due to the frigid weather already impacting the area.

TNS with staff writers

Source: Read Full Article