Sub-freezing weather in the US is reported to have caused several deaths, with another icy blast set to hit the northeast of the country. Many cities have experienced record low temperatures over the past few days.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/S. Wenig
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Record-breaking freezing temperatures were blamed for the deaths of up to four people in the United States on Tuesday, as a cold snap continued its reign in the northeast of the country.
The cold was expected to ease across most of the US after Tuesday, but the northeastern section of the country was set for a repeat of the icy weather on Thursday or Friday as another arctic blast headed for the area.
The National Weather Service issued wind-chill warnings as dangerously low temperatures were expected from eastern Montana across the Midwest into the Atlantic coast and the Northeast and down through the deep South.
School districts in Iowa, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina canceled or delayed the start of classes as bitterly cold temperatures, 11 to 17 degrees Celsius (20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit) below normal, were expected across the eastern half of the country.
Record cold and snow hits northern US
Bitter cold weather has hit the northern United States and is expected to stay into the New Year. Two Minnesota cities have set record low temperatures and the city of Erie in Pennsylvania has seen a record snowfall.
People in Erie, Pennsylvania have seen a record snowfall over the past few days. Residents are still shoveling snow after a storm brought 34 inches (86 cm) on Christmas Day, smashing the Christmas snowfall record for the Great Lakes city of 8 inches, and also the daily record of 20 inches. 26.5 more inches fell on Tuesday. More than 65 inches in total fell on the city in just a few days.
While Erie saw the record snowfall, two Minnesota cities experienced record-breaking cold temperatures. The National Weather Service reported International Falls, the self-proclaimed Icebox of the Nation, plunged to -37 degrees fahrenheit (-38.8 celsius), breaking the old record of 32 below set in 1924. Hibbing, Minnesota, bottomed out at 28 below, breaking the old record of 27 below set in 1964.
Image: Reuters/R. Frank
'Storm's timing was good'
Officials said the storm's timing was good, since people were off the streets and staying home for Christmas, giving plows more space to clear streets. One woman said she was going to build a snowman but didn't know where to start, and when she went outside to clear off the satellite dish she fell face-first into the snow because she couldn't figure out where the porch ended.
Image: Reuters/R. Frank
Rugged up
The chilly temperatures also hit New York as the The National Weather Service said wind chills could make temperatures feel below zero. Wind chill advisories or warnings have been put in effect for much of New England, northern Pennsylvania and New York.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/S. Wenig
Forecasters warn of hypothermia
The cold temperatures sweeping across northern US cities saw forecasters warn of hypothermia and frostbite from arctic air settling in over central areas of the country and spreading east. Here, pedestrians are rugged up in beanies as steam rises from a manhole in Lower Manhattan, New York.
Image: Getty Images/D. Angerer
'Unprecedented' amount of snow
By Wednesday, County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper said Erie's roads were relatively clear, emergency calls were relatively slow and the big task was digging out. Here, a traffic engineering employee clears snow from traffic lights. "We're used to a lot of snow here in Erie, but this is unprecedented, the amount we got," Dahlkemper said.
The cold was blamed for the deaths of two men in separate incidents in Milwaukee, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A homeless man was found dead on a porch in Charleston, West Virginia, while another man was found dead outside a church in Detroit, with police saying he may have frozen to death, local news outlets reported.
The mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, urged residents to call the city if they saw people outside.
"We want every resident to have shelter and warmth," she said in a tweet.
Record low temperatures
Despite sub-freezing temperatures and warnings from the National Weather Service, the icy weather did not deter hundreds of people from ringing in the new year by jumping into Lake Michigan as part of the "Polar Plunge."
Organizers had canceled a similar event on the Chicago lakefront after the temperature went below zero. The organizers said the arctic blast made jumping into the lake too dangerous.
Many places across the United States experienced record low temperatures over the last few days. Omaha, Nebraska, posted a low of minus 29 Celsius (minus 20 Fahrenheit), breaking a 130-year-old record, and Aberdeen, South Dakota, shattered a record set in 1919 with a temperature of minus 36 degrees Celsius (minus 32 Fahrenheit).
