Polar vortex freezes U.S. Midwest with snow, dangerously cold air

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Polar vortex freezes U.S. Midwest with snow, dangerously cold air

By Suzannah Gonzales

 

A pedestrian stops to take a photo by Chicago River, as bitter cold phenomenon called the polar vortex has descended on much of the central and eastern United States, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., January 29, 2019. REUTERS/Pinar Istek

 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A blast of Arctic air from the polar vortex brought dangerous, bone-chilling cold to a wide swath of the United States on Tuesday, stretching from the Dakotas through Maine, with snow expected as far south as Alabama and Georgia.

 

The Midwest was the hardest-hit region, as temperatures plunged below zero Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius). By nightfall the mercury was hovering at 0F in Chicago, 7F (minus 14C) in Detroit and minus 21f (minus 29C) in Minneapolis.

Local television pictures showed the Chicago River and Lake Michigan filled with chunks of ice.

 

The brutal blast known as the polar vortex is a stream of cold air that spins around the stratosphere over the North Pole, but whose current has been disrupted and is now pushing south into the United States.

 

Officials warned Chicago residents, accustomed to chilling winters, to expect an unusually deep and dangerous freeze. Even the city's supply of its signature deep-dish pizza was affected: The Lou Malnati's chain announced it would stop taking delivery orders at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

 

"This could possibly be history-making," said Ricky Castro, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Romeoville, Illinois.

 

As much as two feet (60 cm) of snow was forecast in Wisconsin, and six inches (15 cm) in Illinois. Snow was expected through Wednesday from the Great Lakes region into New England.

 

Some Chicago residents found warmth inside the Harold Washington Library Center, which planned to stay open on Wednesday.

 

Gilbert Rothschild, 79, walked through a corridor wearing three sweaters and an undershirt underneath his parka. "The more layers, the more you're insulated," he said.

 

Rothschild, the president of a liquor retailer, said he planned on keeping his stores open on Wednesday, figuring customers who were not working might want to pick up something to keep them feeling warm at home.

 

FROSTBITE WITHIN 10 MINUTES

Many Midwest cities opened warming shelters. Regional governments closed hundreds of schools and airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights, according to the Flightaware flight tracking website. Many had been destined for Atlanta, where the National Football League's Super Bowl will take place on Sunday.

 

Amy Patterson, a vice president at the Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee, said there would still be time for fans to fly to Atlanta for the game, with the National Weather Service forecasting a high of a balmy 58F (14C) on Sunday.

 

A low of minus 10F (minus 23C) was forecast in Chicago and elsewhere in northern Illinois on Wednesday. But with the wind chill factored in, temperatures will feel as low as minus 50F (minus 46C) through Thursday, the National Weather Service reported.

 

Temperatures could reach lows of minus 30F to minus 40F (minus 34C to minus 40C) in parts of the Northern Plains and Great Lakes on Wednesday, the NWS said.

 

The freezing weather may have killed a man in Rochester, Minnesota, who was found dead outside his home on Sunday, according to a report by WCCO, a local CBS affiliate. Rochester police officials did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Jim Hayes, a National Weather Service meteorologist, warned that frostbite was possible within 10 minutes in the intense cold.

 

ZOO CLOSED

For many across the region, life ground to a halt.

 

In Chicago, home to the nation's third-largest school system, officials plan to cancel classes for all 360,000 students on Wednesday due to the weather. Detroit also said all public schools would close, and Michigan State University said it would suspend classes, only the seventh time it has done so because of weather since 1855.

 

The Chicago Zoological Society said it would shut Brookfield Zoo for only the fourth time in its 85-year history on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

According to the National Weather Service, the coldest recorded temperature in Chicago was minus 27 degrees (minus 33C) on Jan. 20, 1985.

 

Officials in Des Moines, Iowa, opened warming shelters, but also suggested residents could stay warm inside shopping malls.

 

In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp shut government offices in 35 counties on Tuesday, and schools across parts of the state were also closed.

 

In Fargo, North Dakota, where the temperature dropped to minus 24F (minus 31C), Dan Hallock, an advertising executive, marveled that people were still working outside as he bought coffee.

 

"The garbage men of Fargo have my utmost respect," he said.

 

(Reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago, Rich McKay in Atlanta, Gina Cherelus and Jonathan Allen in New York, and Alicia Underlee Nelso in Fargo and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Tarrant, Leslie Adler and James Dalgleish)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-01-30

[from the home of CC]

Spent many years working out of Fort Mac (northern Alberta) on various mega projects. -40 (the scale is the same in both Fahrenheit/Celsius at 40 below) is uncomfortable but doable with the right gear and common sense. Feel bad for the homeless though.

[oldrunner]

Spent two years stationed at Duluth IAP Minnesota...breeeeerrrrrrr.

[Skeptic7]

And on Monday, 4 Feb in Detroit, MI...calling for 11 C. From a low of -24 C yesterday to a forecast high of 11 C just a few days later. Some wild temp swings! Glad I'm here and not there! 

[johng]

Global warming ! ???

[jvs]

On 1/30/2019 at 11:12 AM, from the home of CC said:

Spent many years working out of Fort Mac (northern Alberta) on various mega projects. -40 (the scale is the same in both Fahrenheit/Celsius at 40 below) is uncomfortable but doable with the right gear and common sense. Feel bad for the homeless though.

Yes and after work a few shots of CC to get warm!!

 

[VincentRJ]

1 hour ago, johng said:

Global warming ! ???

Absolutely! Global warming causes freezing temperatures in winter. The science is settled. ????

[thaibeachlovers]

12 hours ago, johng said:

Global warming ! ???

Indeed! That's why the greenies changed it to climate change, which means anything one wants it to, given climate is always changing.

Bet they are cursing now, as this can only lead to more people questioning the "settled science".

Our "summer" arrived quite late, and a bit of G W was welcome when it finally did start.

[Cryingdick]

I am from Minnesota. These things are normal the only change is the buzzword "polar vortex" back in the day we simply said cold front. The upper midwest gets freezing cold in the winter, what else is new? For what it is worth I spent a winter in northern Minnesota and for two months the high temperature didn't get above -20 for a high. The coldest day I saw was -59. 

 

The media really makes everything into a larger story than it really is these days. So far the winter has been over all mild.

[DM07]

Yeah...ahm...climate change!

Not weather change!

Get that into your thick skulls!

[attrayant]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That's why the greenies changed it to climate change

 

When did that happen, exactly?

[Becker]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Indeed! That's why the greenies changed it to climate change, which means anything one wants it to, given climate is always changing.

Bet they are cursing now, as this can only lead to more people questioning the "settled science".

Our "summer" arrived quite late, and a bit of G W was welcome when it finally did start.

 

[lannarebirth]

59 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

I am from Minnesota. These things are normal the only change is the buzzword "polar vortex" back in the day we simply said cold front. The upper midwest gets freezing cold in the winter, what else is new? For what it is worth I spent a winter in northern Minnesota and for two months the high temperature didn't get above -20 for a high. The coldest day I saw was -59. 

 

The media really makes everything into a larger story than it really is these days. So far the winter has been over all mild.

 

I have been in -40 in northern Minnesota and -30 in the thumb of Michigan. It is frigid country come Winter.

[Skeptic7]

Winters in the northern USA start later in the year...end earlier and are much milder than 15 years ago and further back. Get less snow too and have big temp swings. Regardless of reasons, tho it's a fact that human causes are a contributing factor...the climate is warming. This is true on a global scale...NOT just the USA. 

 

FACT...the past 4 years are warmest on record and 17 of 18 are warmest  on record just since 2001. 

[RickBradford]

2 hours ago, DM07 said:

Yeah...ahm...climate change!

Not weather change!

Get that into your thick skulls!

Go and tell that to the thick skulls at The Economist.

 

[tifino]

has the Gulf Stream's Parking Brake finally clamped? 

[thaibeachlovers]

25 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

Winters in the northern USA start later in the year...end earlier and are much milder than 15 years ago and further back. Get less snow too and have big temp swings. Regardless of reasons, tho it's a fact that human causes are a contributing factor...the climate is warming. This is true on a global scale...NOT just the USA. 

 

FACT...the past 4 years are warmest on record and 17 of 18 are warmest  on record just since 2001. 

Sooooo, if WE caused it, what are YOU going to do about it? Give up your car and walk, never fly anywhere again, don't use electricity generated by fossil fuels?

I don't believe that anything we do now will make any difference at all, so I'm just going to carry on as I always have. I made the biggest contribution that anyone can, by not having children to pollute the earth.

Meanwhile, where I live the supermarkets have stopped giving free plastic bags as their "contribution" to stopping climate change ( which is a nonsense as climate is constantly changing ), but for some strange reason haven't started using paper bags. Hmmm, could it be that they are just trying to make even more profit? In the most blatant hypocrisy though, they will SELL plastic bags to us! Also, almost everything they sell is wrapped in plastic.

[bristolboy]

11 minutes ago, RickBradford said:

Go and tell that to the thick skulls at The Economist.

 

Non-sequitur much?

In fact, The Economist offers a concise if incomplete explanation of why global warming can be connected to the polar vortex's wanderings

"When the Arctic is cold and lower latitudes are reliably warm, the jet stream is more stable. The problem for America’s Midwest is that the Arctic has warmed unusually fast, a result of more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and so the polar jet stream is fluctuating more widely. As a result, the stratospheric polar vortex may slow down, and colder air is drawn southwards. "

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2019/01/30/why-chicago-is-so-cold

[bristolboy]

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Indeed! That's why the greenies changed it to climate change, which means anything one wants it to, given climate is always changing.

Bet they are cursing now, as this can only lead to more people questioning the "settled science".

Our "summer" arrived quite late, and a bit of G W was welcome when it finally did start.

So now you're asserting that climatologists aren't asserting that the global temperature on average isn't getting warmer? Really?                           

[RickBradford]

3 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Non-sequitur much?

In fact, The Economist offers a concise if incomplete explanation of why global warming can be connected to the polar vortex's wanderings

"When the Arctic is cold and lower latitudes are reliably warm, the jet stream is more stable. The problem for America’s Midwest is that the Arctic has warmed unusually fast, a result of more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and so the polar jet stream is fluctuating more widely. As a result, the stratospheric polar vortex may slow down, and colder air is drawn southwards. "

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2019/01/30/why-chicago-is-so-cold

It's not an "explanation".

 

It's a tenuous theory with a number of untested links, and is most definitely not settled science. It's no more likely to be right than it is to be wrong.

 

But the legacy media is treating it as though it were as solid as the theory of gravity.

 

We're at the stage now where every extreme weather event can, in the activists' minds, be linked to global warming, whether unusual heat (Australia), cold (Chicago), floods, droughts and strong winds.

 

That's not science, it's religion.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

So now you're asserting that climatologists aren't asserting that the global temperature on average isn't getting warmer? Really?                           

It's obvious to most people that things are getting slightly warmer, but I want to know what anyone is going to do about it. So far nothing has been done that would make any difference at all, and the world's rainforest continues to disappear so people can have soap and hamburgers, airlines continue to expand, and car makers are selling millions of polluting machines as fast as they can make them.

[bristolboy]

Just now, thaibeachlovers said:

It's obvious to most people that things are getting slightly warmer, but I want to know what anyone is going to do about it. So far nothing has been done that would make any difference at all, and the world's rainforest continues to disappear so people can have soap and hamburgers, airlines continue to expand, and car makers are selling millions of polluting machines as fast as they can make them.

But that's now you claimed, is it? Here's what you wrote:

"Indeed! That's why the greenies changed it to climate change, which means anything one wants it to, given climate is always changing."

Which raises the question: Do you read what you write before you post it?

[thaibeachlovers]

4 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

But that's now you claimed, is it? Here's what you wrote:

"Indeed! That's why the greenies changed it to climate change, which means anything one wants it to, given climate is always changing."

Which raises the question: Do you read what you write before you post it?

I have no idea as to the point you are trying to make, and I don't even understand your first sentence given it doesn't make any sense at all. So I have to ask you if you read what you write before you post it?

[bristolboy]

36 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I have no idea as to the point you are trying to make, and I don't even understand your first sentence given it doesn't make any sense at all. 

Given what you write, I completely believe that you don't understand what I've written.

[DM07]

57 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Sooooo, if WE caused it, what are YOU going to do about it? Give up your car and walk, never fly anywhere again, don't use electricity generated by fossil fuels?

I don't believe that anything we do now will make any difference at all, so I'm just going to carry on as I always have. I made the biggest contribution that anyone can, by not having children to pollute the earth.

Meanwhile, where I live the supermarkets have stopped giving free plastic bags as their "contribution" to stopping climate change ( which is a nonsense as climate is constantly changing ), but for some strange reason haven't started using paper bags. Hmmm, could it be that they are just trying to make even more profit? In the most blatant hypocrisy though, they will SELL plastic bags to us! Also, almost everything they sell is wrapped in plastic.

Soooo...what are YOU doing about it?

Just sitting there, chasing kids off your lawn?

You don't even recognize there is a PROBLEM, which would be the first step to fight a problem!

To you and your climate change- denying friends, you just sit there and brig up strawman after strawman, denying the reality!

"The climate is always changing!" 

Grrrreat!

No one (read my lips: N-O-O-N-E is argueing against that!

The point is: at the moment, change is being sped up and it is likely, that mankind contributes to that mucho mucho!

At least that is, what most scientists, who work in the field, agree upon!

But according to you, these guys are all in the pocket of...ahm...the big money science labs and...Leonardo Di Caprio, to push their agenda...which is...I don't know...take away your Ferrari...?!

The minority of scientists, who argue against climate change, is deep in the pocket of the fossil- fuel industry, but ...hey...that doesn't influence their stance on the subject, because....reasons...!

 

As said it before, I am saying it again: in a world, where climate change is not happening and/or dangerous, because the ice in my whiskey is still cold, it makes no sense to argue with you!

 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, bristolboy said:

So now you're asserting that climatologists aren't asserting that the global temperature on average isn't getting warmer? Really?                           

It's warm and sunny in Chiang Mai, and I doubt I'll last another ten years.

My five kids can worry about it if they want, I just don't care, what a bad boomer I am. 

[bristolboy]

1 hour ago, RickBradford said:

It's not an "explanation".

 

It's a tenuous theory with a number of untested links, and is most definitely not settled science. It's no more likely to be right than it is to be wrong.

 

But the legacy media is treating it as though it were as solid as the theory of gravity.

 

We're at the stage now where every extreme weather event can, in the activists' minds, be linked to global warming, whether unusual heat (Australia), cold (Chicago), floods, droughts and strong winds.

 

That's not science, it's religion.

It's funny that you don't seem to have a problem with the cluelessness of the claims that the descent of the polar vortex somehow impeaches the theory of global warming.

 

And it's one thing to invoke activists' claims about extreme weather events, quite another to invoke the hypotheses of scientists, I stick with science while you fling whatever mud you can by invoking unnamed activists. What sensible person cares what non-climatologists believe or assert? 

[Skeptic7]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Sooooo, if WE caused it, what are YOU going to do about it? Give up your car and walk, never fly anywhere again, don't use electricity generated by fossil fuels?

I don't believe that anything we do now will make any difference at all, so I'm just going to carry on as I always have. I made the biggest contribution that anyone can, by not having children to pollute the earth.

Meanwhile, where I live the supermarkets have stopped giving free plastic bags as their "contribution" to stopping climate change ( which is a nonsense as climate is constantly changing ), but for some strange reason haven't started using paper bags. Hmmm, could it be that they are just trying to make even more profit? In the most blatant hypocrisy though, they will SELL plastic bags to us! Also, almost everything they sell is wrapped in plastic.

Yo dude...u gotta slow down and READ. My post states meteorological facts which are easily verified. Also didn't claim 

"WE caused it" solely...just that human causes are a factor. 

 

FYI...My last 2 cars in the States were 17 and 14 years old. Both were 4cyl compacts that got over 30 mpg and only driven 4200 miles/year on average. Never had a car or motorbike here. I also don't have any kids, recycled as much as possible wherever I've lived... 

 

AND been a vegan for 30 years this coming June. 

[HLover]

1 minute ago, Skeptic7 said:

Yo dude...

????????????????????????????????????

[RickBradford]

8 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

What sensible person cares what non-climatologists believe or assert? 

Any sensible person who regards climate change as a threat cares a great deal what non-climatologists believe or assert.

 

Action takes shedloads of money plus political will and power. Climatologists have neither. Only governments do.