CHICAGO: Icy, snow-covered roads and high winds made travel treacherous on Sunday from the Dakotas to Michigan and Missouri as much of the US braced for dangerously cold temperatures that could break records.
A whirlpool of frigid, dense air known as a ” polar vortex” was expected to suppress temperatures in more than half of the continental US starting into Monday and Tuesday, with wind chill warnings stretching from Montana to Alabama.
The forecast is extreme: 25 below zero Fahrenheit (31 below zero Celsius) in Fargo, North Dakota, minus 31 F (minus 35 C) in International Falls, Minnesota, and 15 below F (26 below C) in Indianapolis and Chicago. Wind chills — what it feels like outside when high winds are factored into the temperature — could drop into the negative 50s and 60s. Northeastern Montana was warned on Sunday of wind chills up to 59 below zero F (51 below zero C).
“It’s just a dangerous cold,” National Weather Service meteorologist Butch Dye in Missouri said.
Several Midwestern states were walloped with up to a foot (30 centimetres) of new snow on Sunday. Five to 9 inches (12.5 to 22.5 centimetres) fell overnight in the Chicago area, while the St. Louis area had about a foot (30 centimetres) of snow and northern Indiana had at least 8 inches (20 centimetres. Central Illinois was bracing for 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 centimetres), and southern Michigan could see up to 15 inches (37.5 centimetres).
Officials closed several Illinois roadways because of drifting snow, and warned residents to stay inside. (Agencies)
