‘Absolute Coldest’ Deadly Deep Freeze Grips Midwest

A large swath of the United States was gripped by brutal cold and wind chills on Wednesday as record-low temperatures caused by a blast of Arctic air moved across the Midwest and into Eastern states, prompting residents to stay indoors.

Classes were canceled Wednesday and Thursday in Chicago, home of the nation’s third-largest school system, and police warned of the risk of accidents on icy highways. The U.S. Postal Service temporarily set aside its credo about carrying mail regardless of “snow nor rain … nor gloom of night,” and halted deliveries from parts of the Dakotas through Ohio.

Temperatures in parts of the Northern Plains and Great Lakes plunged to as low as minus 42 degrees in Park Rapids, Minnesota, and minus 31 degrees in Fargo, North Dakota, according to the National Weather Service.

Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the service, said some of the coldest wind chills were recorded in International Falls, Minnesota, at minus 55 degrees. That’s significantly more frigid than an expected low of minus 28 degrees with wind chill in Antarctica.

“Really today is going to be the absolute coldest across the Northern Plains and across the Midwest… stretching down into the Ohio Valley as well,” Orrison said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “Moving forward here, we are going to see a decent amount of this cold air move through the East Coast.”

The bitter cold is being carried by the polar vortex, a stream of air that spins around the stratosphere over the North Pole, but whose current has been disrupted and is now pushing south.

With officials in Midwest and the Northern states advising residents to stay indoors, dashcam footage from one trucker taken outside Grand Rapids, Michigan gave a snapshot of hair-raising driving conditions.

At least five deaths relating to cold weather were reported since Saturday in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, local media reports said.

More than 2,000 flights were canceled early on Wednesday, largely out of Chicago O’Hare and Chicago Midway international airports, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.

Train service Amtrak said it would cancel all trains in and out of Chicago on Wednesday.

Most federal government offices in Washington D.C. opened three hours late on Wednesday due to the frigid weather already impacting the area.