Chicago — A blast of polar air brought record-low temperatures to much of the US Midwest on Wednesday, canceling trash pick-ups, halting the mail and forcing residents who pride themselves on their winter hardiness to huddle indoors.
Classes were canceled for 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. Michigan said all state offices would remain closed throughout Thursday.
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 to Ohio.
Streets in Chicago were nearly empty, with few people walking outside in the painfully cold air as temperatures hovered around minus 28°C.
“It’s terrible!” Pasquale Cappellano, a waiter, said as he smoked a cigarette while waiting outside for a bus on Chicago’s North Side. “I gotta pick up my medication at Walgreens or else I wouldn’t be out the door.”
In Minneapolis, chilled to minus 26°C, Brian Pierce had ventured out to “embrace the elements” and found himself watching cars slipping on the roads. “The roads sound really weird, it seems there’s a lack of grip,” he said. “And my teeth hurt.”
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
Temperatures in parts of the Northern Plains and Great Lakes plunged to as low as minus 41°C in Park Rapids, Minnesota, and minus 35°C in Fargo, North Dakota, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The frigid winds were headed for the US East Coast later on Wednesday and into Thursday.
At least five deaths related to extreme 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 canceled on Wednesday out of Chicago O'Hare and Chicago Midway international airports, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. Amtrak canceled all trains in and out of Chicago on Wednesday.
Most federal government offices in Washington DC opened three hours late on Wednesday due to frigid weather already impacting the area.
‘Warm and toasty’
At the Morning Joy Farm in Mercer, North Dakota, Annie Carlson said her horses and sheep were doing fine. “They can go into the barn if they wish,” she said. “They’re snuggled in, warm and toasty.” Her chickens, ducks and guinea hens were enjoying the 21°C climate inside their greenhouse-like hoop house, she said.
Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the NWS, said some of the coldest wind chills were recorded in International Falls, Minnesota, at minus 48°C. Even the South Pole in Antarctica was warmer, with an expected low of minus 31°C with wind chill.
Temperatures in Chicago dropped again “quite precipitously” on Wednesday night, Orrison said, breaking the record low of minus 33°C on January 21 1985, the same day as Ronald Reagan’s presidential inauguration.
Banks and stores in the region, including multiple branches of Chase and Trader Joe’s, closed for business. Waste Management, a major trash collection company, said it was canceling pick-ups in counties across the region on Wednesday and Thursday.
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.
Trump under the weather
On Monday, as warnings of the polar vortex to hit the Midwest were coming out, US President Donald Trump tweeted, “In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!” He later correct the spelling of warming.
He was pilloried on Twitter with many wearily pointing out that Trump still doesn’t understand the difference between climate and weather, nor that global warming leads to climate change that leads to extremes of weather — such as this polar vortex over large parts of the US.
Others took a more tangential and political approach. “Next he'll tell Australia to build a wall to keep the heat out.” “My hamberders need waming!” were just two examples
Warming centres
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, while city police handed out hats, jackets and blankets.
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.
US homes and businesses will likely use record amounts of natural gas for heating on Wednesday, according to energy analysts. Some residents just to the north and north-west of the Twin Cities in Minnesota were asked by Xcel Energy to dial down their thermostats to 16°C because of the strains on its natural gas supply system.
Reuters
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