DHAKA: Americans in some states are being warned to stay indoors as a record-breaking freeze threatens a wind chill factor of minus 50.
Chicago saw a record low of minus 16 (minus 27 C) on Monday.
The day`s high was minus 11, with a windchill of minus 34. It`s part of an Arctic blast that plunged deep into the central United States on Monday, leaving Nashville, Tennessee, 40 degrees colder than Albany, New York; Memphis 20 degrees colder than Anchorage, Alaska; and Atlanta colder than Moscow -- Russia or Idaho, take your pick, reports CNN.
The bitter cold that a "polar vortex" is pushing into much of the United States is not just another winter storm. It`s the coldest in 20 years in many areas. The South was downright balmy compared to the Great Lakes region, where temperatures hovered in the negative 20s -- before wind chill, which dropped temps to the negative 40s and in places like Minneapolis.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton ordered the state`s roughly 2,000 public schools to close on Monday, the first such order since 1997. Many of those will stay closed Tuesday, including the three major districts around Minneapolis, where blowing snow shrouded bridges over the frozen Mississippi River.
"I`ve only been out of school four days ever, and today and tomorrow are two of the four days," said Graham Myers, who was going to a movie with several friends and his father.
Wind chills in the 40-below range can cause frostbite in a matter of minutes, the National Weather Service warned. But there were those who reveled in it.
"I love the cold. I`m one of those crazy cold-weather Minnesotans who just enjoys this," Robert Pettit told CNN as he took a walk on a work break. If properly dressed, "It`s not so bad," he said.
"You dress up, put your mukluks on, get some gloves and a hat and you`re set," Pettit said.
Freeze toll 15, mostly from accidents
Authorities have blamed a total of 15 deaths on the cold so far, 11 of them from traffic accidents.
But the the death of an Indianapolis woman found in her backyard early Monday "is believed to be weather-related," police spokesman Kendale Adams told CNN. A man in Wisconsin died of hypothermia, and an elderly woman with Alzheimer`s disease who wandered away from her home in New York state was found dead in the snowy woods about 100 yards away, authorities there said.
In addition, hypothermia was a contributing factor in the death of a patient at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, hospital spokesman George Stamatis told CNN.
At the Salvation Army Harbor Light Center, a Minneapolis homeless shelter, Executive Director Bill Miller said 750 people came in off the street to spend the night Sunday.
"That`s a record," he said. He said Harbor Light "will take in everybody, no matter if they`ve been drinking or whatever their issues might be."
Further south, the chill was less brutal but still nothing to dismiss. In Fairfield, Iowa, at minus 9, CNN iReporter Deborah Roberts called Monday "a good day to stay in and use the excuse it`s too darn cold."
In Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn called on state residents to stay off the roads and activated National Guard troops to help local authorities clear highways. In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel urged residents "to keep exercising good judgment and remain indoors if at all possible."
BDST: 0924 HRS, JAN 07, 2014
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