Record-setting freeze grips US and Canada, disrupting travel
Print Edition
A blast of bone-chilling cold snarled air travel, closed schools and prompted calls yesterday for people to stay inside in the United States and Canada, as temperatures plunged to lows not seen in two decades.
Superlatives of cold-talk abounded, even in midwestern states used to chest-high snow and bitter cold, as the US National Weather Service said the deep freeze was making its way east.
Air travel was a nightmare, stranding many travelers trying to head home from year’s end holidays. More than 4,300 US flights were canceled on Monday, nearly half of those in Chicago, and more than 6,500 were delayed.
Toronto’s Pearson Airport halted ground operations early yesterday because of “equipment freezing” and out of concern for the safety of airport personnel. Flights were scheduled to resume at 9am local time, but police were reinforced at the airport amid rising tension among stranded travelers.
Airline JetBlue said it was reducing operations at four airports in the bustling northeast corridor of JFK, La Guardia, Newark and Boston.
More than a dozen deaths were blamed on the frigid weather.
A shift in a weather pattern known as the “polar vortex” triggered a drastic drop in temperatures to lows not seen in two decades. It coincided with wind chill warnings in much of the eastern United States.
Comertown, Montana recorded the lowest wind chill value so far at minus 53 degrees Celsius while North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota were not much warmer. That was significantly colder than the South Pole, which recorded a wind chill reading of minus 34 Celsius.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, where people scoff when cities like Washington DC panic and shut down with even a moderate snowfall, The Star Tribune newspaper gave a graphic description of what happens when, for instance, the overnight temperature on Monday hit minus 31 Celsius.
“The wind chill and cold are freezing exposed flesh in five minutes,” it said, adding life has “slowed to a crawl across the state.”
“It’s a blistering cold spell destined for Minnesota winter weather lore,” it said.
Even the typically temperate Deep South was feeling the chill with a hard freeze warning threatening crops and livestock.
Early yesterday in Washington DC, the temperature was a relatively mild minus 11 Celsius, but blustery winds blew leaves and trash swirling in the air.
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