Polar Vortex To Plunge US Temperatures to -60C

[Jazzy]

Windchills of nearly -60C (-70F) are threatening to turn states in the north and northwest US into an icy deep freeze.

A phenomena described as a polar vortex is set to suck super-chilled air from the Arctic into North and South Dakota, the Great Lakes states and New England, sending temperatures plunging.

Washington DC has already seen its coldest temperatures for 20 years and several states in the Midwest have recorded their lowest mercury readings for more than a decade.

With much of the northeast of the country already under thick snow and well below zero, a newly emerging weather system is threatening to cause further misery.

The 'polar vortex' is an anti-clockwise rotating pool of cold, dense air that forms close to the North Pole, but typically hangs over Canada.

Meteorologists say that unusually, this year, it is heading south and moving towards the north and eastern United States.

Fargo in North Dakota is expected to dip to -31C (-25F), International Falls, Minnesota will fall to -35C (-31F) and Indianapolis, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois, will reach -26C (-15F).

Forecasters say that at those temperatures exposed skin can get frostbitten in minutes and hypothermia can quickly set in as wind chills may reach 50, 60 or even 70 below zero F (45.5, 51 or even 56.7 below zero C).

Elsewhere, parts of New England have already dropped into the negatives with some places hitting -35C (-30F) in Vermont and -38C (-36F) in Maine.

Temperatures were also expected to plummet to -35C in northwestern Ontario and Environment Canada issued a special weather statement on Saturday night for much of southern Ontario, warning of heavy snowfalls.

Source

 

[DrLeftover]

Those temperatures are hazardous to people, animals, and machinery.

If you have a diesel car or truck, the fuel in the tank will gel, and you won't go anywhere.

Pipes in the walls of even a well insulated house can freeze and burst.

Wild animals can hibernate through it, even those sorts of critters that don't do a full hibernation can go into a state of deep sleep and survive. Your outside dogs and cats can't. They can freeze to death in a short period of time.

And for you.

If you don't think you can get serious frostbite and lose fingers and toes and ears and other parts of your body because "you'll know when you're cold", well, you're just an idiot and you'll get what you deserve.

 

[wirelessguru1]

Essentially the North Pole is seeking a new balance as it shifts with the beginning of the new (ICE) age...

 

[DrLeftover]

Mr. Obama should have Congress pass a law preventing that.