A deep freeze expected in the US Midwest, north-eastern New England states and even the South will be one to remember, with potential record-low temperatures heightening fears of frostbite and hypothermia.
It has not been this cold for decades – 20 years in Washington DC, 18 years in Milwaukee, 15 in Missouri – even in the Midwest, where bundling up is second nature.
Weather Bell meteorologist Ryan Maue said: “If you’re under 40 you’ve not seen this stuff before.”
Preceded by snow in much of the Midwest, the frigid air will begin today and extend into early next week, funnelled as far south as the Gulf Coast.
It is being blamed on a “polar vortex” as one meteorologist calls it, a counterclockwise-rotating pool of cold, dense air.
If you’re under 40 you’ve not seen this stuff before
“It’s just a large area of very cold air that comes down, forms over the North Pole or polar regions... usually stays in Canada, but this time it’s going to come all the way into the eastern United States,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Phillip Schumacher in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The forecasts are startling: minus 31 Celsius in Fargo, North Dakota, minus 35 C in International Falls, Minnesota, and 26 below C in Indianapolis and Chicago.
At those temperatures, exposed skin can get frostbitten in minutes and hypothermia can quickly set in as wind chills may reach 45.5, 51 or even 56.7 below zero C.
Already, parts of the north-eastern New England states dropped into the negatives early yesterday, with East Brighton, Vermont, seeing 34.4 below zero C just after midnight and Allagash, Maine, hitting minus 37.8 C. The cold will sweep through other parts of New England where residents are digging out from a snowstorm.
Snow will reduce the sun’s heating effect, so night-time lows will plummet because of the strong north-west winds, Maue said. Fresh powder is expected in parts of the central Midwest and South starting Saturday night – up to one foot in eastern Missouri and southern Michigan, 6-8ins in central Illinois, eight or more inches in western Kentucky and up to 6ins in parts of middle Tennessee.
The South will also dip into temperatures rarely seen. By today, western and central Kentucky could be minus 18 C - “definitely record-breaking”, said weather service meteorologist Christine Wielgos in Paducah, Kentucky. And in Atlanta, tomorrow’s high is expected to hover around minus 4 C.
The arctic chill will affect everything from sports to schools to flights. Mike Duell, with the flight-tracking website FlightAware.com, says to expect airport delays and flight cancellations because of the cold temperatures.
Minnesota has called off school tomorrow for the entire state – the first such shutdown in 17 years.
Maue noted that it was relatively uncommon to have such frigid air blanket so much of the US, maybe once a decade or every couple of decades. At least 16 deaths were blamed on a snow storm that swept across the eastern half of the US.
In Canada, a transformer malfunctioned at the terminal station in Sunnyside, Newfoundland, after an overnight blizzard, knocking out power to 190,000 customers. About 125,000 people remained without electricity yesterday, mostly in eastern parts of Newfoundland.
Western France has also suffered devastation along the sea-front following Atlantic storms at Penhors in Finistere. In fact high winds, heavy rain and high tides coincided to wreak havoc throughout the western-most department of Finistere throughout the year-end holidays season and the start of the new year, flooding the Laita river that passes through the centre of Quimperle in Finistere.
Meanwhile in the UK severe weather warnings remained in place yesterday as more heavy rain, strong winds and large waves were expected to cause further coastal flooding.
The Met Office issued a yellow warning – meaning 'be aware' – for heavy rain in southern parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, southern Wales, north-east England and the South.