A major snowstorm that lashed parts of the Midwest on Monday will give way to record-smashing cold this week as a powerful polar vortex drives a deep freeze across the eastern half of the nation, forecasters said.
A snowstorm will wreak havoc across the Deep South on Tuesday.
The bitter cold will bring below-zero temperatures to a quarter of the continental USA. The National Weather Service in Des Moines, Iowa, warned that "this is the coldest air many of us will have ever experienced." The service said that if people go outside, they should "avoid taking deep breaths, and minimize talking."
Schools could be closed in Iowa as buses may struggle to start, the weather service said.
Wednesday could be the coldest day ever recorded in Chicago – a forecast high of 14 below zero, the weather service said. There's a chance the Windy City will break its all-time coldest temperature record of 27 degrees below zero. Chicago's famous Brookfield Zoo will be closed Wednesday and Thursday for only the fourth time in its 85-year history.
"Some locations in the Midwest will be below zero continuously for 48-72 hours," according to AccuWeather meteorologist Mike Doll.
It could be warmer above the Arctic Circle than in Chicago by Wednesday, with temperatures forecast to fall in the Windy City to 20-to-25 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus-29 to minus-32 Celsius).
New York and Washington will be warmer, with a bit of snow.
Chicago is expected to approach an all-time record low of minus 27, set in 1985, according to Brian Hurley, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Wind chill, meanwhile, could feel closer to minus-40 to minus-45.
"That is pretty amazing," Hurley said by telephone on Monday. But there's hope ahead for the weekend, when the cold is forecast to retreat across the U.S., with temperatures returning to seasonal levels or warmer, Hurley added.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:14PM (8 children)
That's it, in a nutshell.
It plays out that way every year now, anymore. Hurricanes hit the Caribbean in the summer, so it's OMG IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD because that never, ever happens (except multiple times every year during hurricane season). Forest fires hit the West during the summer, so it's OMG IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIEEEEEE because that never, ever happens (except every single blessed summer in living memory all over the West). Now it's winter so it's OMG IT ACTUALLY GETS COLD AND SNOWS IN THE WINTER WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE OMG CLIMATE CHANGE ARRRRGGGHH because it never, ever gets cold and snows in the winter (except every winter within living memory).
We the people need a more effective way to mock the hell out of the media for it. Their stupid antics to try to cram reality into their one-dimensional Narrative beggar belief. Can we drop them all on a desert island with a crate of cans of tuna and nothing but spoons to open them with, so the rest of us can point and laugh? I mean, at least then they'd add some value to the world.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:57PM (2 children)
Says the guy who worked in politics. I think y'all passed your expiration date, too bad the Puritans didn't appropriate the "walk into the wilderness when no longer useful" part of the native culture.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday January 30 2019, @03:17AM (1 child)
Is that "y'all" in the singular, or plural sense? I can't tell if you're intending an ad hominem jab, a racist insult, or some flavor of ageism. If the latter two, you best report to remedial sensitivity training before your Chief Diversity Officer gets wind of your bigotry.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 30 2019, @05:33AM
Your mistakes are your own old man! I say the true path is follow through!!
Ok, since you're more articulate than most of the trolls here I'll bother.
y'all is plural and was referring to old people who stop using their brains, but to be fair there are plenty of young people making little use of theirs. The difference is the young people stand a chance of learning while the old people tend to get cranky and stubborn insisting that surviving a few more decades makes them the wisest sages. So ageism it is, but obliquely. Sorry for profiling you, you should be considered as a unique individual.
My Chief Diversity Officer just laughed upon reading your quip. I report all possible transgressions for review, I have absolute faith in the system and anything that appears otherwise is part of the Greater Plan.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @10:10PM (4 children)
I re-read your comment and wondered just how dire the OMG FREAKOUT stuff was compared to your characterization.
I saw one sentence of doom "A snowstorm will wreak havoc across the Deep South on Tuesday."
and then of course the evil lizard agenda Democrat governor said
"In a statement, Whitmer said, “Keeping Michiganders safe during this stretch of dangerously cold temperatures is our priority. Such widespread, extreme conditions have not occurred in Michigan for many years and it is imperative that we are proactive with record-low temperatures being predicted by the National Weather Service."
I see what you mean phoenix, such insanity can not be tolerated! We must return our great nation to common sense, decency, one nation, under god, with, uh, what now?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday January 30 2019, @03:11AM (3 children)
Look, you do realize that Michigan consists of two peninsulas sandwiched between Great Lakes, right? That means it gets fucking cold and snows, a lot, there every winter. People who live there don't huddle in that weather. Rather, they suit up and go out and ice fish and ride snowmobiles and snowshoe and ski and sled. So telling them to watch out for cold weather during, gasp, the middle of winter, is utterly gratuitous. It's like the governor of Arizona making a big hullabaloo about people wearing sunscreen and drinking water during summer because, gosh, it's hot in the desert in the summer.
Maybe you don't perceive the harm in overhyping trivialities, constantly, but it corrodes public attentiveness in the same way that old children's tale warned us not to cry wolf. When somebody unceasingly rings the alarm bell then the alarm bell comes to be ignored, and that is dangerous.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 30 2019, @03:48AM (2 children)
The fact you think that quote is chicken littling shows you are a bit out of whack. The only thing more ridiculous than headlines of doom are the people searching for more outrage than even the clickbaiters are pushing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 30 2019, @04:08PM (1 child)
The quote /is/ bullshit though. It's been maybe 5 years since we had this much snow and cold, but that's only because winters have been unreasonably mild for the past decade. Schools are closed left and right over 5 inches of snow. It's pure insanity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 30 2019, @04:57PM
So people shouldn't prepare for extreme cold because you have personally experienced it before? You want teenagers driving like normal cause all the old people say there is nothing to worry about?