page_title: Early 2014 North American cold wave
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Early 2014 North American cold wave / Impact / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: View south along North Whitney Avenue at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee, United States, during the 2014 polar votex. The temperature when the photograph was taken was 0ºF (-18ºC).
context_page_description: The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013–2014 winter season, and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States. The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex. Record-low temperatures also extended well into March.
  On January 2, an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States, resulting in heavy snowfall. Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels, and low temperature records were broken across the United States. Business, school, and road closures were common, as well as mass flight cancellations. Altogether, more than 200 million people were affected, in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States.
context_section_description: The weather event played a significant role in the US Economy contributing to a 2.9% drop in GDP. 
  "The bad weather in much of the U.S. in early 2014 was a significant drag on the economy, disrupting production, construction, and shipments, and deterring home and auto sales," wrote PNC Senior Economist Gus Faucher in a note out prior to the release. "But data show growth rebounding in the second quarter, with improvements in home and auto sales and residential construction."
  Evan Gold of weather intelligence firm Planalytics called the storm and the low temperatures the worst weather event for the economy since Hurricane Sandy just over a year earlier. 200 million people were affected, and Gold calculated the impact at $5 billion. $50 to $100 million was lost by airlines which cancelled a total of 20,000 flights after the storm began on January 2. JetBlue took a major hit because 80 percent of its flights go through New York City or Boston. Tony Madden of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis said with so many schools closed, parents had to stay home from work or work from home. Even the ones who could work from home, Madden said, might not have done as much. Not included in the total were the insurance industry and government costs for salting roads, overtime and repairs.
  Gold said some industries benefitted from the storm and cold, including video on demand, restaurants which offered delivery services and convenience stores. People also used gift cards to buy online. Hopper Research of Boston observed that searches for flights to Cancun, Mexico increased by about half in northern cities. New England spot natural gas prices hit record levels from January 1 to February 18, with the day-ahead wholesale (spot) natural gas price at the Algonquin Citygate hub serving Boston averaging US$22.53 per million British thermal units ($76.9/MWh), a record high for these dates since the Intercontinental Exchange data series began in 2001.
  Over a dozen deaths were attributed to the cold wave, with dangerous roadway conditions and extreme cold cited as causes.
  At least 3,600 flights were cancelled on January 6, and several thousand were cancelled over the preceding weekend. Further delays were caused by the weather at airports that did not possess de-icing equipment. At O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, the jet fuel and deicing fluids froze, according to American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller.
  Amtrak cancelled scheduled passenger rail service having connections through Chicago, due to heavy snows or extreme cold. Three Amtrak trains were stranded overnight on January 6, approximately 80 miles (130 km) west of Chicago, near Mendota, Illinois, due to ice and snowdrifts on the tracks. The 500 passengers were loaded onto buses the next morning for the rest of the trip to Chicago. Another Amtrak train was stuck near Kalamazoo, Michigan for 8 hours, while en route from Detroit to Chicago. Chicago Metra commuter trains reported numerous accidents. Detroit shut down its People Mover due to the low temperatures on January 7.
  Between January 5 and 6, temperatures fell 50 °F (28 °C) in Middle Tennessee, dropping to a high of 9 °F (−13 °C) on Monday, January 6 in Nashville. During the cold wave, the strain on the power supply left 1,200 customers in Nashville without power, along with around 7,500 customers in Blount County. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency declared a state of emergency.
  Twenty-four thousand residents lost power in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.
  The Weather Channel reported power outages in several states, abandoned cars on highways in North Carolina, and freezing rain in Louisiana.
caption: Light snow in Tennessee
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX", "Image Model": "PENTAX K-x", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PENTAX Digital Camera Utility Ver. 4.10", "Image DateTime": "2014:01:07 22:18:17", "Image Artist": "Brian Stansberry", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "280", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "825", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6772", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "8/5", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:01:06 23:49:25", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:01:06 23:49:25", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3960", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2747", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "684", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "30", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Hard", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3"}