Residents driven from their homes by power outages in the Midwest longed to return to their own beds.
Monday’s sub-zero temperatures broke records for the date in Chicago, at minus 16, and Fort Wayne, Ind., where the mercury fell to 13 below. Records also fell in Oklahoma and Texas, and wind chills across the region were 40 below and colder. Officials in Indiana, already struggling with high winds and more than a foot of snow, urged residents to stay home.
‘The cold is the real killer here,’ Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said on Monday as he asked schools and businesses to remain closed for another day. ‘In 10 minutes you could be dead without the proper clothes.’ The polar air started to invade the East and South on Tuesday.
Temperatures plunged to 8 degrees in Atlanta and 6 degrees below zero at a remote weather station in the north Georgia mountains - the coldest temperatures in the state for years.
Temperatures hit lows in parts of West Virginia not felt for 25 years, while the extreme cold in Virginia beat record lows that had stood since the late 1950s. The National Weather Service said the mercury bottomed out at 3 degrees before sunrise at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshal International Airport, with a wind chill of -16.
Highs in the single digits were expected in Georgia and Alabama, and wind chill warnings stretched as far south as Florida.
In downtown Louisville, Ky., where wind chills dropped to 22 below zero Monday, John Tyler gathered with friends at a McDonald’s. The self-described homeless man spent Sunday night sleeping on the street.
Dressed in a sweatshirt, two coats and a black woolen cap, Tyler said there’s no way to adequately prepare for this kind of cold.
Monday’s sub-zero temperatures broke records for the date in Chicago, at minus 16, and Fort Wayne, Ind., where the mercury fell to 13 below. Records also fell in Oklahoma and Texas, and wind chills across the region were 40 below and colder. Officials in Indiana, already struggling with high winds and more than a foot of snow, urged residents to stay home.
‘The cold is the real killer here,’ Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said on Monday as he asked schools and businesses to remain closed for another day. ‘In 10 minutes you could be dead without the proper clothes.’ The polar air started to invade the East and South on Tuesday.
Temperatures plunged to 8 degrees in Atlanta and 6 degrees below zero at a remote weather station in the north Georgia mountains - the coldest temperatures in the state for years.
Temperatures hit lows in parts of West Virginia not felt for 25 years, while the extreme cold in Virginia beat record lows that had stood since the late 1950s. The National Weather Service said the mercury bottomed out at 3 degrees before sunrise at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshal International Airport, with a wind chill of -16.
Highs in the single digits were expected in Georgia and Alabama, and wind chill warnings stretched as far south as Florida.
In downtown Louisville, Ky., where wind chills dropped to 22 below zero Monday, John Tyler gathered with friends at a McDonald’s. The self-described homeless man spent Sunday night sleeping on the street.
Dressed in a sweatshirt, two coats and a black woolen cap, Tyler said there’s no way to adequately prepare for this kind of cold.