Dangerously cold arctic air swept across a huge swath of the US on Monday, making travel treacherous, forcing schools to close and prompting officials to plead with residents to stay indoors.
A shift in a weather pattern known as the “polar vortex” triggered a drastic drop in temperatures to lows not seen in two decades and coincided with wind-chill warnings in much of the east of the country.
Comertown, Montana, recorded the lowest wind chill value so far at minus-53?C, while North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota were not much warmer.
Photo: AFP
That was significantly colder than the South Pole, which recorded a wind chill reading of minus-33.8?C.
Even the typically temperate Deep South was feeling the chill, with a hard-freeze warning threatening crops and livestock.
On the East Coast, a brief lull in the deep freeze greeted morning commuters, but rainstorms threatened to turn roads and sidewalks into ice rinks overnight as temperatures were expected to plunge.
The body of a 90-year-old woman was found face down in the snow next to her car in Ohio on Monday morning, the Toledo Blade reported.
At least a dozen other people were reportedly killed in crashes on icy roads, including four people whose sport utility vehicle slid off a rural Minnesota highway and fell into the Mississippi.
Four Chicago men aged 48 to 63 died of apparent heart attacks while shoveling the snow over the weekend, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The cold snap came after two massive winter storms snarled travel, grounded thousands of flights and dumped as much as 60cm of snow in the first few days of the year.
More than 4,300 US flights were canceled on Monday — nearly half of those in Chicago — and more than 6,500 were delayed, according to FlightAware.
The city of Chicago was among scores of municipalities which told parents to keep their children at home rather than risk sending them out into winds so bitter that skin could freeze in a matter of minutes.
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn declared a state of emergency and called up the US National Guard to help rescue stranded motorists as high winds whipped up blinding snow.
Quinn praised the “heroic” efforts of National Guard troops who cleared a 375-vehicle backup, and a forestry officer who rescued seven stranded people and two of their pets using a snowmobile.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, officials warned residents to stay indoors and urged schools to shut down as temperatures dropped to minus-24.4?C, with the wind chill making it feel like minus-38.3?C.
“Police are reaching out to homeless citizens in order to help them find the nearest shelter,” Milwaukee city spokeswoman Sarah DeRoo said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese