Brutal cold returns to US Midwest for a while

An SUV ventures past the St. Augusta, Minn., city limits sign on Stearns County Road 136 in near white-out conditions Sunday afternoon, Jan. 26, 2014 south of St. Cloud, Minn. An unusual weather pattern driving bitterly cold air from the Arctic Circle south across a huge swath of the Midwest is expected to send temperatures plummeting Monday from Minneapolis to Louisville, Ky., the latest punch from a winter that is in some areas shaping up as one of the coldest on record. AP

CHICAGO – A persistent weather pattern driving bitterly cold air south out of the Arctic will cause temperatures from Minnesota to Kentucky to plummet Monday, turning this winter into one of the coldest on record in some areas.

Temperatures will remain in the grips of the deep freeze for 2½ days, said meteorologist Mike Hudson of the National Weather Service in Kansas City, Missouri. It will be similar to what happened earlier this month when temperatures dropped quickly and stayed low for days when a piece of the polar vortex — winds that circulate around the North Pole — “broke off and moved south,” Hudson said.

In cities where temperatures reached the 40s F, 50s F (single digits and teens C) and even higher Sunday, people will wake up Monday to temperatures ranging from the teens F to well below zero F (around minus 10 to minus 20 C). And with the wind chill, cities throughout the Midwest will feel far colder than the minus 4 F (minus 20 C) that Hudson said was expected in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost U.S. city.

The weather service said city after city will face wind chills well below zero F (minus 20 C) Monday: minus 43 F (minus 41.5 C) in Minneapolis, minus 14 F (minus 25.5 C)in Kansas City, minus 10 F (minus 23 .5 C) in St. Louis, and minus 3 F (minus 19.5 C)in Louisville.

In the Chicago area, residents were bracing for a historic deep freeze. Monday’s high was expected to be minus 4 degrees F (minus 20 C)and drop as low as 17 below zero (27 below zero C) downtown, with wind chills as low as 40 below zero F (40 below zero C).

Temperatures in Chicago could remain below zero F (below minus 18 C) Tuesday as well and remain below zero for a total of 60 hours — the longest stretch since temperatures stayed below zero for a record 98 hours in 1983 and the third longest stretch in 80 years. It also would easily eclipse the 36 straight hours temperatures stayed below zero earlier this month, when the frigid weather prompted the city’s public schools to close for two days.

By noon Sunday, Chicago’s school district, which has approximately 400,000 students attending more than 650 schools, said it would be closed Monday. Districts in the Chicago suburbs also announced they’d be closed Monday.

In Michigan, snow on the roads and deep subfreezing temperatures contributed to multiple crashes Sunday that forced expressway closings. And on Saturday night, two people were killed in Grand Haven Township in western Michigan because of similar weather conditions, authorities said.

North Dakota and South Dakota residents dealt with dangerous cold Sunday and wind gusts that reached up to 60 mph (100 kph). The high winds led to blowing snow that made it nearly impossible to travel in some areas of the two states.

Severe weather conditions — with snow and high winds — were also impacting Indiana and Iowa.