CHICAGO // A blast of bone-chilling cold disrupted air travel, closed schools and prompted calls on Tuesday for people in the United States and Canada to stay indoors, as temperatures plunged to lows not seen in two decades.
Toronto’s Pearson Airport halted ground operations on Tuesday morning because of “equipment freezing” and out of concern for the safety of airport personnel, it said on its Twitter account.
Flights were scheduled to resume at 9am local time, but police were reinforced at the airport amid rising tension among stranded travellers.
In the US, the JetBlue airline said it was reducing operations at four airports in the bustling north-east corridor – JFK, La Guardia, Newark and Boston – until later in the morning.
More than 4,300 US flights were cancelled on Monday – nearly half of those in Chicago – and more than 6,500 were delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight-monitoring site.
More than a dozen deaths were blamed on the frigid weather.
The drastic drop in temperatures was triggered by a shift in a weather pattern known as the “polar vortex” and coincided with wind chill warnings in much of the eastern United States.
Comertown, in Montana state, recorded the lowest wind chill value so far at minus -53°C, 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 –34°C.
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 –30°C.
“The wind chill and cold are freezing exposed flesh in five minutes,” it said.
The paper said life had “slowed to a crawl across the stat”.
“It’s a blistering cold spell destined for Minnesota winter weather lore,” it added.
Even the typically temperate Deep South was feeling the chill, with a “hard freeze” warning threatening crops and livestock.
Deaths blamed on the frigid weather included a 71-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who froze to death after getting lost in New York state.
The body of a 90-year-old woman was found face down in the snow next to her car in Ohio on Monday morning, the Toledo Blade newspaper reported.
At least a dozen other people were reported killed in crashes on icy roads, including four people whose sport utility vehicle slid off a rural Minnesota highway and fell into the Mississippi River.
Four Chicago men aged 48 to 63 died of apparent heart attacks while shovelling snow over the weekend, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The cold snap came after two massive winter storms disrupted travel, grounded thousands of flights and dumped as much as 60 centimetres of snow in the first few days of the year.
Chicago was among scores of towns and cities which told parents to keep their children at home rather than risk sending them out into winds so bitter that skin could freeze in a matter of minutes.
The governor of Minnesota cancelled school across the entire state on Monday.
The governor of Illinois declared a state of emergency and called up the National Guard to help rescue stranded motorists as high winds whipped up blinding snow.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, officials warned residents to stay indoors and urged schools to shut down as temperatures dropped to minus -24°C, with the wind chill making it feel like -38 °C.
“Police are reaching out to homeless citizens in order to help them find the nearest shelter,” a city spokeswoman said.
In Indianapolis, the barred everyone except emergency workers from driving at the height of the storm Sunday and urged residents to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary on Monday.
But with thousands of people without power after electrical lines were felled, home was not always the best option.
Those who could not stay with family or friends were urged to seek out community centres which were opened as temporary shelters.
The extreme cold disrupted flights and classes in Canada as well. The Atlantic island province of Newfoundland had more than 30,000 people without power.
Nationwide, officials warned of “treacherous” travel conditions, but meteorologists said a warming trend would begin mid-week.
* Agence France-Presse
