The polar vortex is here and it’s wreaking havoc on tens of millions of people across the United States who are bracing for a deep arctic chill that has halted postage services in five states and cancelled more than 2,700 flights.
Winter Storm Jayden has already been blamed for at least four weather-related deaths in Midwestern states, and authorities believe it will continue to be life-threatening throughout the week.
Forecasters have predicted that Chicago will be colder than parts of Alaska, the North Pole and Antarctica, which is in the middle of summer.
At the US McMurdo Antarctic research station, temperatures are predicted to be in the teens and low 20s, compared to Chicago’s minus 28 prediction.
According to meteorologist, Ryan Maue, Chicago will be colder than the North Pole on Thursday. ‘The Arctic Ocean including North Pole will probably be around -20F but that’s normal over the snow covered ice,’ Maue tweeted.
Because of the extreme cold in Chicago, crews had to set rail tracks on fire to keep trains moving smoothly. In Chicago alone, more than 1,550 were canceled in and out of the city.
The polar vortex is here and it’s wreaking havoc on tens of millions of people across the United States who are bracing for a deep arctic chill that has halted postage services in five states and cancelled more than 2,700 flights. Pictured above icicles form on the walkway at North Avenue Beach of Lake Michigan in Chicago Tuesday
Delivery and other services will be suspended in Minnesota, western Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and western Illinois (pictured is the Chicago River)
The James J. Versluis, a 90-foot icebreaker tugboat, breaks ice through Lake Michigan in Chicago on Tuesday
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that people should avoid taking deep breaths and talking outside to ensure lungs are protected from the severely cold air
Detroit’s outlook was for Wednesday overnight lows around minus 15, with wind chills dropping to minus 40
It’s so cold in Chicago, crews had to set fire to commuter rail tracks to keep the trains moving smoothly
‘These are actually a public health risk and you need to treat it appropriately,’ Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday. Pictured are rail tracks that were set on fire Tuesday night
Chicago will also be colder than Alaska, according to the Weather Channel.
‘Fairbanks in the typically cold interior of Alaska is forecast to have highs in the mid-teens Wednesday, much above the late January average high of 2 degrees,’ Chris Dolce said.
And even the US Postal Service is halting deliveries due to the extreme cold. The federal service said that it will not deliver mail in all or parts of five Midwest states on Wednesday because of the dangerous Arctic air blast.
Delivery and other services will be suspended in Minnesota, western Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and western Illinois. The suspension also includes picking up mail from businesses and collection boxes, and picking up packages from residences and business.
Sub-zero temperatures already blanketing parts of Canada began sweeping across the Midwest and towards the East Coast Tuesday evening.
The big chill in the Midwest came on the heels of a major storm that dumped up to a foot of snow on the region over the weekend – and reportedly claimed at least two lives so far.
The NWS forecast for Wednesday night called for temperatures in Chicago as low as minus 28, with wind chills to minus 50.
Detroit’s outlook was for Wednesday overnight lows around minus 15, with wind chills dropping to minus 40.
Governors in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan declared emergencies as the worst of the cold threatened on Wednesday.
‘We need everyone to do your part and make sure you and your families are prepared,’ said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
The bitter cold is the result of a split in the polar vortex that allowed temperatures to plunge much further south in North America than normal.
‘These are actually a public health risk and you need to treat it appropriately,’ Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday.
‘They are life-threatening conditions and temperatures.’
Extreme weather conditions have prompted Amtrak to cancel all trains into and out of Chicago.
Amtrak says short-distance and long-distance, overnight trains are cancelled for Wednesday. Short-distance services are also canceled on Thursday, and most long-distance services to or from Chicago are also not expected to operate Thursday.
An Amtrak spokesman said customers with reservations on the affected trains will be accommodated on trains with similar departure times on another day.
When winter weather hits Chicago, various Metra employees take action starting in the early morning hours to clean railcars (pictured), plow platforms and railyards, and clear switches
Metra crews are seen clearing ice and snow off the rail tracks in Chicago Tuesday evening
At least four deaths were linked to the weather system, including a man struck and killed by a snow plow in the Chicago area, a young couple whose SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana and a Milwaukee man found frozen to death in a garage.
Officials in large Midwestern cities including Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit were desperately trying to get the homeless off the streets.
Minneapolis charitable groups that operate warming places and shelters expanded hours and capacity, and ambulance crews handled all outside calls as being potentially life-threatening, according to Hennepin County Emergency Management Director Eric Waage.
MetroTransit said it wouldn’t remove people from buses if they were riding them simply to stay warm, and weren’t being disruptive.
Emanuel said Chicago was turning five buses into makeshift warming centers moving around the city, some with nurses aboard, to encourage the homeless to come in from the cold. About 160 warming centers were opened in the city.
‘We’re bringing the warming shelters to them, so they can stay near all of their stuff and still warm up,’ said Cristina Villarreal, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Family and Support Services.
Shelters, churches and city departments in Detroit worked together to help get vulnerable people out of the cold, offering the message to those who refused help that ‘you’re going to freeze or lose a limb,’ said Terra DeFoe, a senior adviser to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
Nineteen-year-old Deontai Jordan and dozens of others found refuge from the cold in the basement of a church in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
A wind chill of minus 25 can freeze skin within 15 minutes, according to the NWS. ‘These are VERY DANGEROUS conditions and can lead to frostbite on exposed skin in as little as five minutes where wind chill values are below -50,’ the NWS tweeted
At least four deaths were linked to the weather system, including a man struck and killed by a snow plow in the Chicago area, a young couple whose SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana and a Milwaukee man found frozen to death in a garage. Rescue crews are seen helping a truck driver who went off the road in Pennsylvania
The NWS encouraged folks to stay inside as the weather caused schools and universities to close on Wednesday
‘You come here, you can take a nap, you can snack, you can use the bathroom, you might even be able to shower,’ he said. ‘And then they’re feeding you well. Not to mention they give out clothes, they give out shoes, they give out socks.’
Hundreds of public schools from North Dakota to Missouri to Michigan canceled classes Tuesday, and some on Wednesday as well. So did several large universities.
Closing schools for an extended stretch isn’t an easy decision, even though most school districts build potential makeup days into their schedules, said Josh Collins, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Education.
‘Many students, they might have two working parents, so staying home might mean they’re not supervised,’ he said. ‘For some low-income students, the lunch they receive at school might be their most nutritious meal of the day.’
American Indian tribes in the Upper Midwest were doing what they could to help members in need with heating supplies.
Many people on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the Dakotas live in housing that’s decades old and in disrepair, or in emergency government housing left over from southern disasters such as hurricanes.
‘They aren’t made for this (northern) country. The cold just goes right through them,’ said Elliott Ward, the tribe’s emergency response manager.
The extreme cold was ‘a scary situation’ for the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, said Chris Fairbanks, manager of the northern Minnesota tribe’s energy assistance program.
‘We have many, many calls coming in. We’re just swamped trying to get everybody what they need,’ she said.
The cold was even shutting down typical outdoor activities. A ski hill in the Minneapolis area said it would close through Wednesday. So did an ice castle attraction.
The cold weather was even affecting beer deliveries, with a pair of western Wisconsin distributors saying they would delay or suspend shipments for fear that beer would freeze in their trucks.
The unusually frigid weather is attributed to a sudden warming far above the North Pole. A blast of warm air from misplaced Moroccan heat last month made the normally super chilly air temperatures above the North Pole rapidly increase.
That split the polar vortex into pieces, which then started to wander, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research.
One of those polar vortex pieces is responsible for the subzero temperatures across the Midwest this week.
Minnesota’s Xcel Energy reported that equipment failures on power poles has led to outages throughout the Twin Cities.
The outages started around 5.40pm and more than 3,000 people were still without power at 11pm Tuesday evening, according to CBS Minnesota.
The NWS forecast for Wednesday night called for temperatures in Chicago as low as minus 28, with wind chills to minus 50
Governors in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan declared emergencies as the worst of the cold threatened on Wednesday
The bitter cold is the result of a split in the polar vortex that allowed temperatures to plunge much further south in North America than normal
The National Weather Service (NWS) Twin Cities reported that the area is experiencing the coldest temperatures since 1996.
‘These are VERY DANGEROUS conditions and can lead to frostbite on exposed skin in as little as five minutes where wind chill values are below -50,’ the NWS tweeted.
‘Best thing you can do is limit your time outside.’
A wind chill of minus 25 can freeze skin within 15 minutes, according to the NWS.
The NWS have even warned that people should avoid taking deep breaths and talking outside to ensure lungs are protected from the severely cold air.
Temperatures in almost a dozen states stretching more than 1,200 miles from the Dakotas to Ohio were forecast to be the coldest in a generation, if not on record.
‘One of the coldest arctic air mass intrusions in recent memory is surging south into the Upper Midwest before spreading across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country,’ the NWS said.
‘Expect frigid temperatures, bitterly cold and life-threatening wind chills, likely leading to widespread record lows and low maximum temperatures from the Upper Midwest to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.’
The NWS forecast temperatures between -10 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit by Wednesday across the Midwest, with wind chills making it seem as cold as -65 degrees Fahrenheit in one area of Minnesota.
In the northeastern and southern US, snow was falling.
A cold emergency was declared in Washington, DC, with additional services put on for the homeless.
In Atlanta, some 300 flights were canceled Tuesday.
Charitable groups that operate warming places and shelters expanded hours and capacity, and ambulance crews handled all outside calls as being potentially life-threatening. Kim Stewart helps set up mats at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen which will house more than 100 people during the vortex
Mats and blankets are seen laid out at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen on Tuesday
Scientists say climate change is causing more extreme weather, and one theory for polar vortex chills is that arctic air currents usually trapped around the North Pole are weakened and dislodged by a warming climate.
President Donald Trump used the occasion to again voice skepticism about climate change, tweeting: ‘What the hell is going on with Global Waming? (sic) Please come back fast, we need you!’
But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which operates NWS, tweeted: ‘Winter storms don’t prove that global warming isn’t happening.’
The NOAA also linked to a 2015 explanatory article in their tweet.
In New York City, forecasters are expecting temperatures to drop to near 5 degrees on Thursday morning. The wind chill then will be between -10 and -20.
The MTA says they will more than likely activate warming devices throughout their system to keep switches warm on all Long Island Rail Road and Metro North Railroad lines.
LIRR stations will also keep waiting rooms open 24 hours a day Wednesday through Saturday, according to CBS.
In New Jersey, Gov Phil Murphy is warning residents to plan for icy roads and potential blackouts.
Forecasters in western New York are warning of blizzard-like conditions over the next few days with up to two feet of snow, plummeting temperatures and wind chills that can cause frostbite in minutes.
In advance of the Great Lakes-fed storm, authorities closed schools in Buffalo and surrounding districts for Wednesday and Thursday and the state announced a ban on tractor-trailers and buses from the New York State Thruway.
The ban between Rochester and the Pennsylvania border took effect at 8pm Tuesday.
Drifting bands of lake-effect snow are expected to drop one to two feet by the storm’s end. The hard-to-predict bands can bury some areas, even as the sun shines a short distance away.