Dangerously cold temps continue to blast much of the US, keeping schools closed and flights grounded
BUFFALO, NY — Dangerously cold wind chills continued to hit much of the Rockies, Great Plains and Midwest on Tuesday, with wind chills below minus 30 degrees (minus 34.4 C) in many parts of the central US.
About 110,000 U.S. homes and businesses were without power late Monday, most of them in Oregon after widespread power outages that began Saturday. Portland General Electric warned that the threat of freezing rain could delay recovery efforts on Tuesday. Transportation officials urged residents to avoid travel as roads were expected to be dangerously slippery from ice, which could weigh down trees and power lines and cause them to fall.
Classes were canceled Tuesday for students in Portland and other major cities, including Chicago — home to the nation’s fourth-largest public school district — Denver, Dallas and Fort Worth.
The storms and frigid temperatures affected everything from air travel to NFL playoffs to the Iowa presidential caucuses, and were also the cause of several deaths across the country.
At least four people in the Portland area died, including two people from suspected hypothermia. Another man was killed after a tree fell on his home and a woman died in a fire that spread from an open fire stove after a tree fell on a camper.
In Wisconsin, the deaths of three homeless people in the Milwaukee area were under investigation, with hypothermia as the likely cause, officials said.
Freezing rain and sleet were expected to continue in parts of the South East until Tuesday morning. Winter storm warnings were in effect for Lawrence, Limestone and Madison counties in Alabama and Franklin County in Tennessee, southeastern Arkansas, northeastern Louisiana and much of north-central and southwestern Mississippi.
On Monday evening, temperatures dropped as low as 10 degrees (minus 12.2 C) in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and Jackson, Tennessee.
Cold temperatures in the Northeast didn’t stop fans from cheering on the Buffalo Bills at a snow-covered Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. The Bills defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday in an AFC wild-card playoff game that was postponed 27 1/2 hours because of a storm that dumped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow on the region.
And voters gave former President Donald Trump a victory Monday night in the coldest Iowa caucuses ever. The temperature dropped to minus 3 degrees (minus 19.4 C) in Des Moines, with the wind chill feeling much colder.
Air travelers across the country faced delays and cancellations. The flight tracking service FlightAware reported about 2,900 cancellations in, to or from the United States on Monday.
Temperatures are expected to moderate by mid-week, but another wave of colder air is expected to descend south over the Northern Plains and Midwest, reaching the Deep South by the end of the week.