Historic freeze could break records

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (AP):It has been decades since parts of the Midwest experienced a deep freeze like the one expected to arrive today, with potential record-low temperatures heightening fears of frostbite and hypothermia - even in a region where bundling up is second nature.

This "polar vortex", as one meteorologist calls it, is caused by a counter-clockwise-rotating pool of cold, dense air.

The frigid air, piled up at the North Pole, will be pushed down to the United States, funnelling it as far south as the Gulf Coast.

Ryan Maue, of Tallahassee, a meteorologist for Weather Bell, said records will likely be broken during the short yet forceful deep freeze - a perfect combination of the jet stream, cold surface temperatures and the polar vortex - that will begin today and extend into early next week.

"All the ingredients are there for a near-record or historic cold outbreak," he said. "If you're under 40 [years old], you've not seen this stuff before."

Before the polar plunge, yesterday marked the day Earth is the closest it gets to the sun each year.

The planet orbits the sun in an oval and on average is about 93 million miles away. But every January Earth is at perihelion, and yesterday it was only 91.4 million miles from the sun.

startling predictions

But that proximity doesn't affect the planet's temperatures, and the predictions are startling: 25 below zero in Fargo, minus 31 in International Falls, and 15 below in Indianapolis and Chicago.

At those temperatures, exposed skin can get frost-bitten in minutes and hypothermia can quickly set in as wind chills may reach 50, 60 or even 70 below zero.

The cold will sweep through parts of New England, too, where residents will have just dug out from a snowstorm.

And fresh powder was expected in parts of the central Midwest and South starting last night - up to a foot in the St Louis area, six to eight inches in Central Illinois, eight or more inches in western Kentucky and a half-foot to a foot in south-western Michigan.

Snow will reduce the sun's heating effect, so night-time lows will plummet because of strong northwest winds that will deliver the Arctic blast, Maue said.

There's no warming effect from the Gulf to counteract the cold air, he said.

Even places accustomed to mild and warmer winters will be affected early next week, including Atlanta where Tuesday's high is expected to hover in the mid-20s.

Sunday's NFL play-off game in Green Bay could be among one of the coldest ever played - a frigid minus two degrees when the Packers and San Francisco 49ers kick off at Lambeau Field.

And ice skaters in Des Moines, Iowa, won't be able to use an outdoor rink as officials decided to shut it down today and tomorrow.