CHICAGO — A deep, brutal cold set in across the Midwest on Wednesday, sending temperatures plummeting to depths that stunned even Midwesterners, a group accustomed to shrugging off winter. The cold that the middle of the country woke up to on Wednesday was the sort that makes cars moan, that makes breathing hurt, that makes any bit of exposed skin sting.

Cities like Chicago had been preparing for the deep freeze for days, so when it arrived, much of life had come to a standstill. Colleges were closed in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, schools were closed all around, and even the United States Postal Service had stopped deliveries in some places. Workers were sent home, meetings canceled, parties called off.

Here are the latest developments:

• Temperatures plummeted and could break records. Minneapolis dipped as low minus 28, with the wind chill reaching minus 53, the National Weather Service said. Chicago got to minus 23, with a windchill of minus 50. And Milwaukee hit minus 20, with a wind chill of minus 47.

• At least four deaths have been connected to the Midwest’s dangerously cold weather system, according to The Associated Press, including a man hit by a snow plow in the Chicago region, a man believed to have frozen to death in a Milwaukee garage, and a couple killed in a vehicle accident on an Indiana road.

• Officials throughout the region have declared states of emergency, warned of frostbite and hypothermia, and urged residents to heed guidelines that ultimately boiled down to two words: Stay inside.

Sea smoke rises from a frigid Lake Michigan

The temperature at Montrose Harbor on Chicago’s North Side on Wednesday was 21 degrees below zero, with a fierce wind gusting from the west. That didn’t deter Iggy Ignoffo, who stood at the edge of Lake Michigan, wearing sunglasses and a warm cap, hands stuffed in his pockets.

“I could see Venus, Jupiter and the moon a little while ago,” he said, pointing to the sky. “Beautiful.” Sea smoke rose from the lake, the result of extremely cold air blowing over warmer water. The downtown skyline was visible in the distance, several miles away.

The harbor was hardly deserted: a stream of curious people ducked in and out of their cars, snapping pictures, taking a brief frolic in the snow.

Mr. Ignoffo and his wife come down the harbor all the time, he said, one of the most photogenic spots in the city. This time, she stayed in the car.

“Now I’m going to take a swim,” Mr. Ignoffo said, beginning the walk back to his car. “Indoors.”

Cities across the Midwest are trying to help the homeless

Cold winter temperatures are nothing new for those without homes in the Midwest, and big cities have always had plans to assist the homeless. But several Midwestern cities, including Akron, Ohio, and Kalamazoo, Mich., have had painful reckonings with homeless encampments over the past year. And the searing, face-burning winds that arrived this week, and the numbing, record-breaking temperatures that were soon expected, brought a level of risk for the homeless that has rarely been seen.

“We’re always concerned, but especially when you can get frostbite in about eight minutes,” said Wendy Weckler, the executive director of Hope House in Milwaukee, a shelter for families, who has helped coordinate the preparation. “The outreach workers are out looking for people, and trying to find the people who don’t usually come in and getting them somewhere safe.”

[Read more here about how the deep freeze is hitting the homeless.]

How do you stay warm when it’s this cold out?

We asked people in Chicago who work in extreme cold for their practical tips for survival. Here’s what they said.

Anita Ellis, a crossing guard who was stationed outside John T. McCutcheon Elementary School in Chicago on Tuesday, said that her secret weapon against the cold was hidden inside her thick winter gloves: a thin pair of rubber gloves.

“They keep the moisture in, so the air can’t float through,” she said, adding that any kind of thin, rubbery gloves — the kind that doctors and nurses wear — is effective.

[You could get frostbite in a matter of minutes. Here’s what to do.]

Michael Bomba, a doorman at a downtown Chicago hotel, has this trick: While he employs the more traditional layering approach for his upper body (a thermal layer, a “couple” of long-sleeve shirts, a windbreaker, a vest, a coat), he takes a radical approach for his lower half. He wears boots and snow pants that are designed for arctic exploration.

[Read more tips on how to stay warm here.]

A Closer Look at the Polar Vortex’s Dangerously Cold Winds

Chicago will be as cold as the Arctic on Wednesday. We’ll show you why.

If it’s so cold out, what about global warming?

The extremely low temperatures this week in parts of the United States, stand in sharp contrast to the trend toward warmer winters. But they may also be a result of warming.

Emerging research suggests that a warming Arctic is causing changes in the jet stream and pushing polar air down to latitudes that are unaccustomed to them and often unprepared. Hence this week’s atypical chill over large swaths of the Northeast and Midwest.

Friederike Otto, an Oxford University climate scientist who studies how specific weather events are exacerbated by global warming, said that while not all of these extreme events can be attributed to climate change, the profound changes in the earth’s atmosphere raise “the likelihood of a large number of extreme events.”

[Read more here about the climate change connection.]

Somini Sengupta contributed reporting from New York.

Source: Read Full Article