At least eight people have died in the US Midwest as the region shivers in the grip of its worst cold snap in decades.

An Iowa student found dead outside a college building is among victims of the deadly freeze.

Hospitals have been treating patients reporting frostbite as life across a swathe of the nation grinds to a halt.

The iciest blasts may still come on Thursday. Ninety million people - a third of the US - have seen temperatures of -17C (0F) or below.

Some 250 million Americans overall have experienced the "polar vortex" conditions, but southern states such as Florida have escaped the brutal chill.
• How cold is it where you are?

How did the fatalities occur?
• University of Iowa student Gerald Belz, 18, was found unresponsive behind a campus building before dawn on Wednesday and later died in hospital. Officials said weather was a factor
• A 70-year-old Michigan man was found dead near his home in Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday. Officials said he was "inadequately dressed for the weather"
• Another Michigan man was also found frozen to death in his neighbourhood
• On Tuesday, a 55-year-old man froze to death in a garage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, having "apparently collapsed after shovelling snow", according to a medical examiner
• An 82-year-old in Pekin, Illinois, died from hypothermia just outside his home on Tuesday
• A 75-year-old man was fatally struck by a snow plough near Chicago on Monday. The driver has since been placed on paid leave pending an investigation, according to WGN9 News
• In northern Indiana, a young couple died after a collision on icy roads

Thursday could see America's third largest city of Chicago breaking its 1985 record low of -32C (-25F), according to meteorologists.

The chill is drifting eastward on Thursday, bringing sub-zero temperatures to Northeastern cities such as Boston.

Areas downwind of the Great Lakes are expected to be buried by intense lake-effect snow lakes into Thursday night.

The region near Buffalo, New York, should see the heaviest snowfall. Snow could fall at rates of 3in-5in (7cm-12cm) per hour.

The icy cold is expected to loosen its grip on Friday.

With wind chill factored in, the Midwest and Great Lakes have felt temperatures closer to -40C (-40F) and -53C (-63F), which is enough to cause frostbite in under five minutes.

But by the end of the weekend, Chicago could see temperatures as high as 10C (50F).

"It's going to be at least a 60-degree swing for Chicago," David Hamrick, a National Weather Service forecaster, told Reuters news agency.

How is the cold snap affecting daily life?

The Arctic weather could cost the US billions of dollars. In 2014, a similar polar freeze cost the country an estimated $5bn (£3.8bn), CBS News reported.

In Minnesota, residents have been asked by natural gas company Xcel Energy to reduce their home thermostats to 17C (63F) in order to help the company handle heating demands.

Michigan residents have had similar requests from their utility companies as providers struggle to keep the states warm.

Detroit, Michigan, has had over two dozen water mains freezing over this week. A city spokesman told the Associated Press the pipes were installed up to 1.8m below the frost line, but with such drastically low temperatures, the ground has still frozen through.

The US Postal Service has suspended all mail deliveries for the second day to parts of six states.

Over 2,300 flights have been cancelled and another 3,500 delayed due to the polar vortex.

As ice and snow continue to build up, roads have become increasingly dangerous across the northern US.

At least two people were critically injured in a 27-car pile-up on icy roads in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.

In Minnesota, prison visits were cancelled over the cold, according to the New York Times.

The Illinois city became a frozen ghost town after temperatures fell to -30C (-23F), colder than parts of Antarctica.

A Good Samaritan paid for 70 homeless Chicagoans to stay in a hotel as temperatures dropped.

Salvation Army spokeswoman Jacqueline Rachev told the Washington Post: "It's a deadly situation for anyone. We're thrilled that someone was in a position to be able to do this."

Most of the thousands of cancelled flights this week were coming out of Chicago's airports - O'Hare International is ranked as one of the top 10 busiest airports in the world.

Amtrak also cancelled all trains into Chicago on Wednesday, affecting 55 trains, and said most would be cancelled on Thursday as well.

As the Midwestern city is one of the company's hubs, train service nationwide could also be impacted.

The chill was even too much for Chicago's Disney on Ice show, which cancelled its Wednesday performance.

Most of Canada was under some sort of weather warning - from extreme cold in the Prairies, Quebec and Ontario to heavy snows in Alberta and Nova Scotia.

In Toronto, where winters tend to be milder compared to cities such as Montreal and Ottawa, temperatures had plummeted to -18C (0F). Icy roads and several transit delays made for a hellish commute for millions of the city's residents.

Environment Canada issued extreme cold warnings for most parts of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, urging residents to limit their exposure to cold and keep pets indoors.

"If it's too cold for you to stay outside, it's too cold for your pet to stay outside," the weather agency warned.

Advocates expressed concern for homeless people living in cities hit by the extreme temperatures.

In Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, temperatures were a frigid -40C (-40F), with wind chill factors making it feel like -50C (-58F).

"If you don't get it in December, you will get it in January or February or March. What do you expect? It's 'Winterpeg'," Caroline Rodriguez told the CBC, in reference to the city's nickname.

In Calgary, Alberta, temperatures were a relatively balmy -3C (27F), but were expected to plummet overnight and through the weekends.

In parts of rural northern Alberta, 15in of snow were expected to fall. </s> A blast of life-threatening cold air continues to grip the U.S. Midwest and is now blamed for at least 12 deaths. Linda So reports. </s> Polar vortex 2019: Relief coming for the Midwest that is suffering another record-low day

Frigid conditions blamed for at least 9 deaths, but gradual warmup will follow strong winds and blizzard conditions. </s> At least 10 people have died in connection with snow and dangerously cold temperatures across the midwestern section of the United States, authorities said Thursday.

The temperature in International Falls, Minnesota, dipped to minus 45F (minus 43C) early Thursday just south of Canada. The city, dubbed the "Icebox of the Nation," saw temperatures drop another 5 degrees F early on Thursday. </s> BISMARCK, N.D. — A deadly arctic deep freeze enveloped the Midwest with record-breaking temperatures on Wednesday, triggering widespread closures of schools and businesses, and the canceling of more than 1,500 flights from Chicago's airports. The cold even prompted the U.S. Postal Service to suspend mail delivery to a wide swath of the region.

Many normal activities shut down and residents huddled inside as the National Weather Service forecast plunging temperatures from one of the coldest air masses in years. The bitter cold is the result of a split in the polar vortex that allowed temperatures to drop much farther south than normal.

In Chicago, temperatures were still dropping after plunging early Wednesday to minus 19 degrees, breaking the day's previous record low set in 1966. Snowplows were idled overnight in southwestern Minnesota, where temperatures dropped to negative 29 degrees. And the temperature in Fargo, North Dakota, was 31 degrees below zero.

In addition to the flight cancelations in Chicago at O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, the extreme cold prompted Amtrak to cancel all trains into and out of Chicago.

Officials throughout the region were focused on protecting vulnerable people from the cold , including the homeless, seniors and those living in substandard housing. Some buses were turned into mobile warming shelters to help the homeless in Chicago.

Governors in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan declared emergencies as the worst of the cold threatened on Wednesday. In Chicago, major attractions closed because of the bitter cold, including the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Art Institute and the Field Museum.

"These (conditions) are actually a public health risk and you need to treat it appropriately," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday. "They are life-threatening conditions and temperatures."

A wind chill of minus 25 can freeze skin within 15 minutes, according to the National Weather Service.

In Michigan, homeless shelters in Lansing were becoming "overloaded," Mayor Andy Schor said. They also were filling up in Detroit.

"People don't want to be out there right now," said Brennan Ellis, 53, who is staying at the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.

Detroit's outlook was for Wednesday overnight lows around minus 12, with wind chills dropping to minus 35.

At least four deaths were linked to the weather system Tuesday, including a man struck and killed by a snow plow in the Chicago area, a young couple whose SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana and a Milwaukee man found frozen to death in a garage.

A popular saying goes: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat …" will stop the mail from being delivered. But extreme cold will on Wednesday.

The U.S. Postal Service said it would suspend mail delivery on Wednesday in parts or all of several Midwest states including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

Hawaii native Charles Henry, 54, was staying at a shelter in St. Paul, Minnesota, and said he was grateful to have a place to stay out of the cold.

"That wind chill out there is not even a joke," he said. "I feel sorry for anybody that has to stay outside."

Chicago was turning five buses into makeshift warming centers moving around the city, some with nurses aboard, to encourage the homeless to come in from the cold.

"We're bringing the warming shelters to them, so they can stay near all of their stuff and still warm up," said Cristina Villarreal, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Family and Support Services.

Shelters, churches and city departments in Detroit worked together to help get vulnerable people out of the cold, offering the message to those who refused help that "you're going to freeze or lose a limb," said Terra DeFoe, a senior adviser to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

Hundreds of public schools and several large universities from North Dakota to Pennsylvania canceled classes Tuesday or planned to do so Wednesday.

American Indian tribes in the Upper Midwest were doing what they could to help members in need with heating supplies. The extreme cold was "a scary situation," because much of the housing is of poor quality, said Chris Fairbanks, energy assistance program manager for the White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota.

The cold weather was even affecting beer deliveries, with a pair of western Wisconsin distributors saying they would delay or suspend shipments for fear that beer would freeze in their trucks.

But it wasn't stopping one of America's most formidable endurance tests, however — the three-day Arrowhead 135 was going on as scheduled in northeastern Minnesota. Competitors can cover the race route by bicycle, cross-country skis or just running.

The cold is attributed to a sudden warming far above the North Pole. A blast of warm air from misplaced Moroccan heat last month made the normally super chilly air temperatures above the North Pole rapidly increase. That split the polar vortex into pieces, which then started to wander, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research.

One of those polar vortex pieces is responsible for the subzero temperatures across the Midwest this week. </s> BISMARCK, N.D. — A deadly arctic deep freeze enveloped the Midwest with record-breaking temperatures on Wednesday, triggering widespread closures of schools and businesses, and the canceling of more than 1,500 flights from Chicago’s airports. The cold even prompted the U.S. Postal Service to suspend mail delivery to a wide swath of the region.

Many normal activities shut down and residents huddled inside as the National Weather Service forecast plunging temperatures from one of the coldest air masses in years. The bitter cold is the result of a split in the polar vortex that allowed temperatures to plunge much further south than normal.

In Chicago, temperatures were still dropping after plunging early Wednesday to minus 19 degrees (negative 28 Celsius), breaking the day’s previous record low set in 1966. Snowplows were idled overnight in southwestern Minnesota, where temperatures dropped to negative 29 degrees (negative 34 Celsius). And the temperature in Fargo, North Dakota, was 31 degrees below zero (negative 35 Celsius).

In addition to the flight cancelations in Chicago at O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, the extreme cold prompted Amtrak to cancel all trains into and out of Chicago.

Officials throughout the region were focused on protecting vulnerable people from the cold , including the homeless, seniors and those living in substandard housing. Some buses were turned into mobile warming shelters to help the homeless in Chicago.

Governors in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan declared emergencies as the worst of the cold threatened on Wednesday. In Chicago, major attractions closed because of the bitter cold, including the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Art Institute and the Field Museum.

“These (conditions) are actually a public health risk and you need to treat it appropriately,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday. “They are life-threatening conditions and temperatures.”

A wind chill of minus 25 (negative 32 degrees Celsius) can freeze skin within 15 minutes, according to the National Weather Service.

In Michigan, homeless shelters in Lansing were becoming “overloaded,” Mayor Andy Schor said. They also were filling up in Detroit.

“People don’t want to be out there right now,” said Brennan Ellis, 53, who is staying at the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.

Detroit’s outlook was for Wednesday overnight lows around minus 12 (negative 24 degrees Celsius), with wind chills dropping to minus 35 (negative 37 degrees Celsius).

At least four deaths were linked to the weather system Tuesday, including a man struck and killed by a snow plow in the Chicago area, a young couple whose SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana and a Milwaukee man found frozen to death in a garage.

A popular saying goes: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat …” will stop the mail from being delivered. But extreme cold will on Wednesday.

The U.S. Postal Service said it would suspend mail delivery on Wednesday in parts or all of several Midwest states including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

Hawaii native Charles Henry, 54, was staying at a shelter in St. Paul, Minnesota, and said he was grateful to have a place to stay out of the cold.

“That wind chill out there is not even a joke,” he said. “I feel sorry for anybody that has to stay outside.”

Chicago was turning five buses into makeshift warming centers moving around the city, some with nurses aboard, to encourage the homeless to come in from the cold.

“We’re bringing the warming shelters to them, so they can stay near all of their stuff and still warm up,” said Cristina Villarreal, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Family and Support Services.

Shelters, churches and city departments in Detroit worked together to help get vulnerable people out of the cold, offering the message to those who refused help that “you’re going to freeze or lose a limb,” said Terra DeFoe, a senior adviser to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

Hundreds of public schools and several large universities from North Dakota to Pennsylvania canceled classes Tuesday or planned to do so Wednesday.

American Indian tribes in the Upper Midwest were doing what they could to help members in need with heating supplies. The extreme cold was “a scary situation,” because much of the housing is of poor quality, said Chris Fairbanks, energy assistance program manager for the White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota.

The cold weather was even affecting beer deliveries, with a pair of western Wisconsin distributors saying they would delay or suspend shipments for fear that beer would freeze in their trucks.

But it wasn’t stopping one of America’s most formidable endurance tests, however — the three-day Arrowhead 135 was going on as scheduled in northeastern Minnesota. Competitors can cover the race route by bicycle, cross-country skis or just running.

The cold is attributed to a sudden warming far above the North Pole. A blast of warm air from misplaced Moroccan heat last month made the normally super chilly air temperatures above the North Pole rapidly increase. That split the polar vortex into pieces, which then started to wander, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research.

One of those polar vortex pieces is responsible for the subzero temperatures across the Midwest this week.

Associated Press reporters Caryn Rousseau and Don Babwin in Chicago; Corey Williams, David Runk and Mike Householder in Detroit; David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; and Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis contributed to this report. AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein also contributed. </s> The brutally cold weather that’s killed 12 people and trapped millions in a historic deep freeze will finally let up by week’s end.

The extreme cold was still evident Thursday as frigid air and dangerous wind chills stretched from the Upper Midwest all the way to Maine, CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said.

At the cold’s peak Thursday morning, about 7 a.m. ET, more than 216 million people saw temperatures below freezing, including 84 million who dealt with subzero temperatures, Hennen said.

By the afternoon, about 30 million people were still under wind chill warnings and advisories — down from a peak of 140 million in the morning.

But the misery will slowly melt away Friday, with a warming trend that could give many Americans thermal whiplash.

“Today is the last of the extreme cold air,” Hennen said Thursday. “Temperatures will rebound quickly over much of the area that saw the extreme cold, creating a yo-yo effect of extreme temperature difference.”

Chicago, for example, will see a temperature rise of almost 75 degrees — from extreme cold of 20-25 below zero to temps in the low 50s on Monday.

And Atlanta, which has shivered in the 20s this week, will enjoy temperatures in the 60s when it hosts the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Chicago might be hit with ‘frost quakes’

Across the country, the bone-chilling weather has shattered dozens of records.

Chicago came close to breaking its record of 27 below zero when temperatures plunged to 21 below, Hennen said.

But the Windy City now has something other than a negative-41 wind chill to worry about: frost quakes.

Some Chicagoans were startled awake Wednesday by a series of large booms, CNN affiliate WGN reported.

“I thought I was crazy! I was up all night because I kept hearing it,” Chastity Clark Baker said on Facebook, according to WGN. “I was scared and thought it was the furnace. I kept walking through the house. I had everyone’s jackets on the table in case we had to run out of here.”

That boom was probably a weather phenomenon known as cryoseism — and dubbed a “frost quake.” It happens when water underground freezes and expands, causing soil and rock to crack.

12 deaths are now linked to brutal weather

As millions grapple with frigid temperatures, at least 12 deaths have been linked to this week’s extreme weather.

The latest reported death was in Marquette Heights, Illinois, where an 82-year-old man died from cold exposure after he slipped on an ice patch outside his home, according to police Chief Bradd Elliott. The man had just returned home and was about to go inside when he slipped.

A neighbor noticed him a few hours later and called 911, Elliott said. He died at a hospital.

In Michigan, the body of a 70-year-old man was found frozen near his Detroit home, police said. It was not clear why he was outdoors.

Officials in Iowa said there have been four deaths there this week, including the discovery Wednesday of a University of Iowa student.

The student, a sophomore, was found unresponsive about 4 a.m. ET behind a campus recreational facility. The temperature in Iowa City at that time was about 21 below zero, and it had been below zero all day, the National Weather Service reported.

Storm-related deaths were also reported in Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana and Wisconsin, authorities said.

The massive cold snap has also frozen some mail and blood donation services.

The US Postal Service said due to arctic temperatures, Thursday deliveries are suspended in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The American Red Cross said 370 blood drives across the country were canceled as temperatures dropped.

“The Red Cross currently has an emergency need for blood and platelet donors of all types to help ensure lifesaving medical treatments and emergency care are not delayed or canceled this winter,” spokeswoman Stephanie Rendon said in an email.

State government offices in Michigan were closed for a second day on Thursday due to “emergency weather conditions.”

Michigan wants residents to weather storm on less heat

Despite the frigid temperatures, Michigan’s governor is asking some residents to turn their heat down.

A fire at Consumers Energy’s Ray Natural Gas Compressor Station in Macomb County — which is responsible for about one-fifth of the state’s natural gas storage supply — shut down all gas flow from the facility.

With gas delivery inhibited, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made a late-night appeal Wednesday to residents of the lower peninsula, asking them to turn their thermostats down to 65 degrees or lower until noon Friday.

It’s important for Michiganders to follow through, Whitmer said, “so that we can get through this storm with minimal harm.” </s> BISMARCK, N.D. -- A deadly arctic deep freeze enveloped the Midwest with record-breaking temperatures on Wednesday, triggering widespread closures of schools and businesses, and the cancelling of more than 1,500 flights from Chicago's airports. The cold even prompted the U.S. Postal Service to suspend mail delivery to a wide swath of the region.

Many normal activities shut down and residents huddled inside as the National Weather Service forecast plunging temperatures from one of the coldest air masses in years. The bitter cold is the result of a split in the polar vortex that allowed temperatures to drop much farther south than normal.

In Chicago, temperatures were still dropping after plunging early Wednesday to minus 19 degrees (negative 28 Celsius), breaking the day's previous record low set in 1966. Snowplows were idled overnight in southwestern Minnesota, where temperatures dropped to negative 29 degrees (negative 34 Celsius). And the temperature in Fargo, North Dakota, was 31 degrees below zero (negative 35 Celsius).

In addition to the flight cancellations in Chicago at O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, the extreme cold prompted Amtrak to cancel all trains into and out of Chicago.

Officials throughout the region were focused on protecting vulnerable people from the cold , including the homeless, seniors and those living in substandard housing. Some buses were turned into mobile warming shelters to help the homeless in Chicago.

Governors in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan declared emergencies as the worst of the cold threatened on Wednesday. In Chicago, major attractions closed because of the bitter cold, including the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Art Institute and the Field Museum.

“These (conditions) are actually a public health risk and you need to treat it appropriately,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday. “They are life-threatening conditions and temperatures.”

A wind chill of minus 25 (negative 32 degrees Celsius) can freeze skin within 15 minutes, according to the National Weather Service.

In Michigan, homeless shelters in Lansing were becoming “overloaded,” Mayor Andy Schor said. They also were filling up in Detroit.

“People don't want to be out there right now,” said Brennan Ellis, 53, who is staying at the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.

Detroit's outlook was for Wednesday overnight lows around minus 12 (negative 24 degrees Celsius), with wind chills dropping to minus 35 (negative 37 degrees Celsius).

At least four deaths were linked to the weather system Tuesday, including a man struck and killed by a snow plow in the Chicago area, a young couple whose SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana and a Milwaukee man found frozen to death in a garage.

A popular saying goes: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat ...” will stop the mail from being delivered. But extreme cold will on Wednesday.

The U.S. Postal Service said it would suspend mail delivery on Wednesday in parts or all of several Midwest states including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

Hawaii native Charles Henry, 54, was staying at a shelter in St. Paul, Minnesota, and said he was grateful to have a place to stay out of the cold.

“That wind chill out there is not even a joke,” he said. “I feel sorry for anybody that has to stay outside.”

Chicago was turning five buses into makeshift warming centres moving around the city, some with nurses aboard, to encourage the homeless to come in from the cold.

“We're bringing the warming shelters to them, so they can stay near all of their stuff and still warm up,” said Cristina Villarreal, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Family and Support Services.

Shelters, churches and city departments in Detroit worked together to help get vulnerable people out of the cold, offering the message to those who refused help that “you're going to freeze or lose a limb,” said Terra DeFoe, a senior adviser to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

Hundreds of public schools and several large universities from North Dakota to Pennsylvania cancelled classes Tuesday or planned to do so Wednesday.

American Indian tribes in the Upper Midwest were doing what they could to help members in need with heating supplies. The extreme cold was “a scary situation,” because much of the housing is of poor quality, said Chris Fairbanks, energy assistance program manager for the White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota.

The cold weather was even affecting beer deliveries, with a pair of western Wisconsin distributors saying they would delay or suspend shipments for fear that beer would freeze in their trucks.

But it wasn't stopping one of America's most formidable endurance tests, however - the three-day Arrowhead 135 was going on as scheduled in northeastern Minnesota. Competitors can cover the race route by bicycle, cross-country skis or just running.

The cold is attributed to a sudden warming far above the North Pole. A blast of warm air from misplaced Moroccan heat last month made the normally super chilly air temperatures above the North Pole rapidly increase. That split the polar vortex into pieces, which then started to wander, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research.

One of those polar vortex pieces is responsible for the subzero temperatures across the Midwest this week.

Associated Press reporters Caryn Rousseau and Don Babwin in Chicago; Corey Williams, David Runk and Mike Householder in Detroit; David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; and Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis contributed to this report. AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein also contributed. </s> A historic and deadly polar vortex gripped a wide swath of the nation Wednesday, with temperatures plunging far below zero and wind chill numbers as extraordinary as they were dangerous.

It was cold in Delaware, too, though the First State avoided the modest snow that was predicted for Tuesday night. Instead, the state was hit by snow squalls Wednesday afternoon.

Temperatures topped out around 30 degrees in New Castle County and the mid-30s downstate. They were expected to plummet overnight, reaching single digits by daybreak Thursday, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Alex Staarmann.

Wind chills of minus 10 are possible Thursday morning, as are statewide high temperatures of 20 degrees.

Here's what the rest of the nation saw.

Chicago's temperature tumbled to 21 degrees below zero, a record for the date and closing in on the city's all-time record of minus 27 set in 1985. The wind chill dipped to an even more startling 51 degrees below zero.

It feels like 51 below zero in Chicago: Polar vortex strikes Midwest

The National Weather Service said the temperature reached minus 28 degrees in Minneapolis, poised to break a record dating back more than 100 years. The wind chill was minus 49.

Wind chill temperatures in dozens of towns across Minnesota and North Dakota plummeted to 60 degrees below zero or less, the National Weather Service said. The early leader was Ely, Minnesota, with a very cool minus 70 degrees.

Officials in Minnesota pulled snowplows off the roads in 11 southeastern counties, citing mechanical problems caused by the extreme cold.

"One of the coldest arctic air mass intrusions in recent memory is surging south into the Upper Midwest before spreading across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country," the National Weather Service said, warning of "life-threatening wind chills, likely leading to widespread record lows and low maximum temperatures."

At least six deaths were linked to the weather system, including a man struck and killed by a snow plow in the Chicago area, a young couple whose SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana and in Milwaukee, and a man found frozen to death in a garage.

In Michigan, the body of a Detroit man was found in front of a neighbor's home, and in suburban Ecorse, another man was found outside without a hat or gloves. Temperatures fell to 27 below in Detroit, minus 32 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Thousands of flights into and out of airports in the region were delayed or canceled, including more than 1,000 flights at Chicago airports alone.

United Airlines spokesman Charlie Hobart says "everything tends to slow down" during severely cold weather, including manpower, fueling and equipment. The airline had brought in extra workers to help and was also providing heated tents for employees.

Amtrak pulled the plug in Chicago, announcing the "extreme weather conditions and an abundance of caution" led the service to cancel all trains to and from the city on Wednesday.

Short-distance services are also canceled on Thursday, Amtrak said.

Light rail was also a mess, with some suburban lines shutting down Wednesday. The Chicago Transit Authority, which shuttles about 1.6 million riders on a typical weekday, said it was experiencing significant delays.

Even the Postal Service took notice, announcing that due to concerns for the safety of its employees, mail wouldn't be delivered Wednesday in parts of at least 10 states.

What is the polar vortex blamed for cold weather, freezing temperatures and cold?

In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order closing all non-essential state offices Wednesday, when the wind chill was forecast to be as low as minus-55 degrees.

Scores of schools, courthouses and businesses were closed across the Midwest.

In Delaware, school administrators monitored the weather closely. Two schools — Odyssey Charter and Providence Creek Academy — dismissed students early.

As in Delaware, several states opened emergency shelters and warming shelters for the homeless and displaced.

Susan Kent, executive director of Love Inc. of Mid Delmarva, said they were trying to get as many people to spend the night inside as possible.

"Every year, there’s one or two fatalities," Kent said. "It really is a matter of life or death."

How to save a life: What to do if you see someone out in the cold this week

More than 30,000 homes and businesses were without power in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio – a life-threatening condition in the brutal cold.

In Chicago, officials added 500 shelter beds and tapped more than 100 religious leaders to make calls and check on senior citizens. Five Chicago Transit Authority buses were dispatched to give homeless people a place to warm up who might not want to go to a shelter.

“Every one of us has a role to check on somebody who is maybe a neighbor on the block who is elderly, infirm or needs extra help,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.

The weather was headed east. New York's forecast high for Thursday was 16 degrees, with a wind chill of minus 15.

The city Housing Authority activated its Situation Room, with heating response teams prepped to respond to heat and hot water emergencies.

Philadelphia enacted "Cold Blue," including 24-hour outreach to find people who are homeless and transport them to safe indoor spaces

People enduring the frigid temperatures have been using hashtags like #Chiberia — a combination of Chicago and Siberia — to share what it's like under such harsh conditions.

They also made videos of cans of soda and beer exploding, frost developing on doorknobs from the inside, officials setting fire to train tracks to keep them from freezing and more.

The USA Today Network and the Associated Press contributed reporting. Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.
Ten deaths have been reported across the midwest due to the record breaking low temperatures.