Get ready for it to feel as cold as MINUS SIXTY! Nation braces for the coldest temperatures in 40 YEARS as ‘polar vortex’ crosses US

  • Below-freezing temperatures expected to carry on through the weekend with rare ‘polar vortex’ due in the Midwest
  • Record lows expected across the region as a freakishly cold weather-system barrels down from the Arctic to hit the United States
  • Experts have said that the weather will be the coldest experienced in almost three generations
  • Nearly half the nation — 140 million people — will  be hit by under zero degrees Fahrenheit temperatures or lower by Wednesday
  • Nights in North Dakota will be nearly -30 degrees Fahrenheit
  • At least 16 deaths were blamed on the storm as it swept across the nation’s eastern half
  • On Sunday the Green Bay Packers play the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin – in temperatures approaching -20 – possibly the coldest game ever played
  • Meteorologists have warned that the cold temperatures could remain throughout the entire winter season
  • 2,500 flights canceled on Friday across the U.S. and an additional 5,100 delayed
  • Warnings plummeting temperatures and wind chills below zero could freeze exposed skin within 15 minutes
  • Outreach teams looked to get homeless people off the frigid streets of Minneapolis, New York, Chicago and Boston

By LOUISE BOYLE and ALEX WARD and MICHAEL ZENNIE and JAMES NYE



Experts have warned that Friday’s freezing temperatures were simply a warm-up and that this weekend will bring a big chill for 140 million people – almost half the nation – that could prove fatal for the unprepared – and will continue through the winter.

With the Northeast still reeling from the huge storm that dumped as much as two-feet of snow across the region and was responsible for the deaths of 16 people, a new weather system is threatening to bring record low temperatures to the Midwest as a polar vortex barrels over the United States.

‘It’s the mother lode of cold air,’ said Weather Channel coordinating meteorologist Tom Moore. ‘On the heels of what will be the coldest air of the season, will be dangerous, life-threatening winds.’

Because of the winds, ‘It may feel as cold as negative 50 to negative 60 on Sunday night over sections of the north-central states,’ the National Weather Service said to NBC News. ‘In those conditions, frost bite sets in on exposed skin within five minutes.’

Moore said that as the freakishly cold weather hits the region, authorities need to act fast to avoid a human catastrophe because of the chill.

‘Anybody living out on the streets needs to be rounded up and put into a shelter,’ said Moore to MSNBC News.

‘The repercussions for not could be deadly, and I’m afraid we’re going to see cases like that.’

The temperature predictions are startling: 25 below zero in Fargo, North Dakota, minus 31 in International Falls, Minnesota, and 15 below in Indianapolis and Chicago.

The so-called ‘polar vortex’ will send cold air piled up at the North Pole down to the U.S., funneling it as far south as the Gulf Coast.

Weather expert Andrew Freeman of Climate Central explains that the rarity is ‘an area of cold low pressure that typically circulates around the Arctic during the winter, spreading tentacles of cold southward into Europe, Asia, and North America at times. Except this time, it’s not a small section of the vortex’.

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