The deadly polar vortex that paralyzed the U.S. Midwest has killed at least 13 people and left tens of millions of Americans shivering for a second day as temperatures plunged to record-breaking lows and the cold snap moved over towards the East Coast.
The painfully cold weather system that put much of the Midwest into a historic deep freeze lingered on Thursday and continued to break historic records with parts of Illinois and Iowa recording temperatures of -38F and -30F respectively.
The frigid conditions canceled more than 2,300 flights and over 1,500 delays on Thursday, while the number of deaths blamed on the cold climbed to 13.
Chicago's temperature dropped to a low of around -21F on Thursday, slightly above the city's lowest-ever reading of -27F in January 1985. Milwaukee's low was -25F. Minneapolis recorded -24F, and wind chills were as low as -38F, an improvement from a day earlier. Rockford, Illinois, saw a record low temperature of -31F on Thursday, while Cedar Rapids, Iowa, set a daily record low of -30F.
The extreme cold also settled in over the Northeast on Thursday. In western New York, a storm that dumped up to 20 inches of snow gave way to subzero temperatures and dangerous wind chills. The arctic conditions caused problems from Buffalo to Brooklyn, where about 200 firefighters battling an early morning blaze in a commercial building took turns getting warm on buses.
The phenomenon caused surreal scenes throughout the region, including Lake Michigan freezing over, parts of Niagara Falls solidifying into frozen stillness and blocks of ice covering the river in downtown Chicago.
Scroll down for video
An aerial view of Chicago on Thursday shows just how much ice built up along the shore of Lake Michigan as temperatures dipped to below -20F during the past two days
Snow and ice covers Soldier Field in Chicago on Thursday as temperatures plummeted in the city from the polar vortex
Lake Michigan froze over and the city of Chicago was blanketed in ice after days of recording-breaking low temperatures
Boat docks in Chicago were completely covered by ice and snow on Thursday after temperatures plunged during the deep freeze
At its worst, the cold snap caused temperatures to plunge to -42F on Wednesday across the Midwest.
The bitter cold was caused by displacement of the polar vortex, a stream of air that normally spins around the stratosphere over the North Pole but whose current was disrupted.
It pushed eastward and states including Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania were experiencing bitterly cold temperatures Thursday.
The prospect of a weekend break offered little comfort to those enduring icy conditions, brutal winds and temperatures. By the weekend, Chicago, which experienced near-record cold on Wednesday and Thursday, was expected to bask in snow-melting highs in the mid-40s to low 50s Fahrenheit. So will other parts of the Midwest.
The deep freeze has caused more than a dozen deaths since Saturday with some dying in weather-related traffic accidents and others from freezing to death.
The body of an 18-year-old pre-med student, Gerald Belz, was found in the freezing cold at the University of Iowa at 3am on Wednesday. The National Weather Service said the wind chill in Iowa at the time he was found was negative 51F degrees.
Police found a man's body across the street from his home in the Detroit area on Wednesday. He was not wearing a hat or gloves and wasn't dressed for below-zero temperatures. A 70-year-old man was also found dead in Detroit in front of a neighbor's home on Wednesday.
Snow, ice and salt covers buildings and streets throughout downtown Chicago as temperatures dipped over the last two days
Ice builds up around Navy Pier in Chicago on Thursday after temperatures plunged to record lows for two consecutive days
Steam rises from building in downtown Chicago as the city experience painfully cold temperatures for the second day
Mist rises from the Chicago River on Wednesday as tens of millions continue to face freezing temperatures
Steam rises from Niagara Fall on Thursday after the brutal cold wave moved eastward after wreaking havoc on the Midwest
A view of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls as steam rises from Niagara Falls on Thursday as a brutal cold wave moves eastward
Water vapor rises above St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River beneath the Stone Arch Bridge during frigid temperatures on Thursday in Minneapolis, Minnesota
St. Louis, Missouri plunged into negative temperatures during the polar vortex
13 KILLED AS DEEP FREEZE WREAKS HAVOC ON MIDWEST
1. Gerald Belz, 18, was found dead on the University of Iowa campus at 3am on Wednesday. The wind chill in Iowa when the pre-med student was found was -51F degrees.
Gerald Belz was found behind an academic hall just before 3am on Wednesday at the University of Iowa
2. A man's body was found near his home in the Detroit area on Tuesday. He was not wearing a hat or gloves and wasn't dressed for below-zero temperatures.
3. Gary Sammons, a 70-year-old man, was found dead in Detroit in front of a neighbor's home on Tuesday.
4. An 82-year-old central Illinois man died in the cold weather after authorities say he was found by a neighbor several hours after he fell trying to get into his home.
5. A Milwaukee woman, 38, was found frozen in her unheated apartment on Wednesday.
6. A 60-year-old woman was found in a vacant house in Ohio.
7. The body of a Michigan man, 60, was found outdoors in freezing conditions.
8. A 55-year-old man, Charley Lampley, froze to death in his Milwaukee garage on Tuesday after he collapsed shoveling snow.
9. A nine-year-old died in an Iowa pile up.
10 & 11. A young couple were killed when their SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana.
12. Donald Anderson, 75, was fatally struck by a snow plow in Chicago on Monday.
13. A homeless man known to locals as 'Larry' was found dead in a bus shelter in Buffalo, New York on Thursday.
An 82-year-old central Illinois man died in the cold weather several hours after he fell trying to get into his home. A Milwaukee woman, 38, was found frozen in her unheated apartment, a 60-year-old woman was found in a house in Ohio and the body of a Michigan man, 60, was found outdoors in freezing conditions.
A 55-year-old man also froze to death in his Milwaukee garage after he collapsed shoveling snow, a man was fatally struck by a snow plow in Chicago, a nine-year-old died in an Iowa pile up and a young couple were killed when their SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana.
A homeless man was also found dead at a bus shelter in Buffalo, New York on Thursday.
Disruptions caused by the cold snap continued to persist on Thursday with power outages and canceled flights and trains. The cold halted postal services across the Midwest on Wednesday and Thursday.
The blast of polar air that enveloped much of the Midwest on Wednesday closed schools and businesses and strained infrastructure with some of the lowest temperatures in a generation. The deep freeze snapped rail lines, canceled hundreds of flights and strained utilities.
Crews in Detroit will need days to repair water mains that burst on Wednesday and other pipes can still burst in persistent subzero temperatures.
Schools in parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa remained closed on Thursday. But students headed back to school in eastern North Dakota, where the weather was forecast to crawl out of double-digit sub-zero temperatures.
Temperatures are expected to bounce back into the single digits on Thursday and into the comparative balmy 20s by Friday across parts of the Midwest.
In the Northeast, people braced themselves for the cold with temperatures plunging to -5F in Boston, 3 degrees in Buffalo, New York, 5 degrees in NYC, 8 degrees in Philadelphia and 3 degrees in Portland, Maine for the early morning commute.
In comparison, temperatures plunged to as low as minus 42F in Park Rapids, Minnesota, minus 31F in Fargo, North Dakota, minus 27F in Minneapolis and minus 25F in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Wednesday.
Chicago dropped to a low of around -23F. Wind chills in northern Illinois made it feel as cold as negative 57F.
Temperatures in parts of the Midwest were lower Wednesday than in Antarctica, where the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station hit -25F.
The phenomenon stemming from a blast of Arctic air caused surreal scenes throughout the region, such as steam rising off the waters of Lake Michigan (above) - the result of extremely cold air passing over warmer water below
This drone footage captured by Soaring Badger Productions was shot along the Chicago lakefront Thursday morning when it was between -15F and -22F degrees outside
A woman braves the cold in Buffalo, New York on Thursday after a winter storm dumped feet of snow
The fountain in New York's Bryant Park was frozen over on Thursday as the polar vortex moved into the Northeast
Ice floats along the Hudson River as the skyline of New York City is seen during freeze temperatures on Thursday
Mike Calen (left) and Steve Goyette (right) prepare to tie off as an ice covered fishing boat arrives at New Bedford, Mass
The painfully cold weather system that put much of the Midwest into a historic deep freeze was expected to ease Thursday, though temperatures still tumbled to record lows in some places
A woman walks by trees covered in ice and snow at Niagara Falls on Thursday
Water vapor rises above St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River beneath the Stone Arch Bridge during frigid temperatures in Minneapolis, Minnesota
The freezing conditions made it difficult for firefighters to battle various infernos, including one at a New Jersey toilet paper plant late Wednesday.
'It's freezing,' Elmwood Park Police Chief Michael Foligno said. 'Firefighters are dealing with water on their faces and on their hands. It's spraying all over you. Regardless of your equipment, it impacts you and slows you down.'
Amtrak also axed all trains into and out of Chicago on Wednesday and most services to or from Chicago on Thursday. Crews had to set rail tracks on fire to keeps trains moving smoothly on Tuesday.
Well over 2,500 flights were canceled on Wednesday, largely out of Chicago O'Hare and Chicago Midway international airports, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
The US Postal Service also took the rare step of suspending mail delivery to parts of Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, the Dakotas and Nebraska on Wednesday because of the dangerous Arctic blast.
The bitter cold was the result of a split in the polar vortex , a mass of cold air that normally stays bottled up in the Arctic. The split allowed the air to spill much farther south than usual.
In fact, Chicago was colder than the Canadian village of Alert, one of the world's most northerly inhabited places. Alert, which is 500 miles from the North Pole, reported a temperature that was a couple of degrees higher.
Governors in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan all declared emergencies as officials in dozens of cities focused on protecting vulnerable people from the cold, including the homeless, seniors and those living in substandard housing.
The polar vortex in the Midwest has brought record-breaking low temperatures across the Midwest, halted postal services in five states and canceled more than 2,600 flights. Lake Michigan (above) became a huge mass of ice.
The freezing conditions made it difficult for firefighters to battle various infernos, including one at a paving company's warehouse in Big Beaver Township, Pennsylvania (pictured above)
Ice forms on tree branches as New York firefighters battle a blaze in Brooklyn on Thursday morning
The sunrises over downtown Pittsburgh and a partially frozen Allegheny River on Thursday. The temperature in Pittsburgh dropped to minus 4 late Wednesday, breaking an 85-year-old record low for January 30 of minus 1 degree
A woman walks in the snow during a winter storm in Buffalo, New York on Thursday
Hundreds of warming centers were opened for vulnerable residents such as seniors, buses were employed as mobile warming spaces, and shelter capacities were increased for the homeless, including the approximately 16,000 living on the streets of Chicago.
An anonymous good Samaritan paid for hotel rooms for 70 homeless people living in tents in Chicago until the cold subsides.
In Michigan, state and utility officials warned residents that they risked brief interruptions of natural gas service if they didn't help reduce energy. The warning followed a fire at a utility's suburban Detroit facility that affected natural gas supplies.
An emergency alert was sent late Wednesday to cellphones asking people to lower thermostats to 65 degrees or below through Friday. Michigan Govenor Gretchen Whitmer asked everyone to 'to do your part.'
Aside from the safety risks and the physical discomfort, the system's icy grip also took a heavy toll on infrastructure, halting transportation, knocking out electricity and interrupting water service.
Ten diesel-train lines in the Metra commuter network kept running, unlike the electric lines, but crews had to heat vital switches with gas flames and watched for rails that were cracked or broken. When steel rails break or even crack, trains are automatically halted until they are diverted or the section of rail is repaired.
A track in the Minneapolis light-rail system also cracked, forcing trains to share the remaining track for a few hours.
In Detroit, more than two dozen water mains froze. Customers were connected to other mains to keep water service from being interrupted, according to a Detroit Water and Sewerage spokesman.
Most mains were installed from the early 1900s to the 1950s. They are 5 to 6 feet underground and beneath the frost line, but that matters little when temperatures drop so dramatically.
On a typical winter day, the city has five to nine breaks, with each taking about three days to fix. But those repairs will take longer now with the large number of failures to fix.
Link hienalouca.com This is interesting We are looking for an investor for a project to grow dinosaurs from chicken eggs and relict plants. Necessary amount of investments from 400 000 to 900 000 dollars. For all interested parties, e-mail angocman@gmail.com. This will be very interesting.
https://hienalouca.com/2019/02/01/13-dead-after-historic-deep-freeze-blasts-the-midwest/
Main photo article The deadly polar vortex that paralyzed the U.S. Midwest has killed at least 13 people and left tens of millions of Americans shivering for a second day as temperatures plunged to record-breaking lows and the cold snap moved over towards the East Coast.
The painfully cold weather system that put ...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/01/31/20/9243678-6651663-image-a-51_1548966133731.jpg
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий