Brutally cold weather shuts schools, delays travel in Midwest (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLaj_cofj3FQJyJuGu5Pw4fzkMRNtYsvRSNCo5P0GKtAcA9hGu-xervfhDXn697PVMQL0ICFymWAmIpdCV84WtlK6MhxRof_UhfzUwY3d4NyxlaFoZB0g1BCQBSCM2Xjv17LoVr_u_kYI/s1600/2014-01-27T174016Z_401255475_GM1EA1S04JC01_RTRMADP_3_USA-WEATHER.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLaj_cofj3FQJyJuGu5Pw4fzkMRNtYsvRSNCo5P0GKtAcA9hGu-xervfhDXn697PVMQL0ICFymWAmIpdCV84WtlK6MhxRof_UhfzUwY3d4NyxlaFoZB0g1BCQBSCM2Xjv17LoVr_u_kYI/s1600/2014-01-27T174016Z_401255475_GM1EA1S04JC01_RTRMADP_3_USA-WEATHER.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390854843542_5773" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">By Mary Wisniewski</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390854843542_5735" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"We have a surge of Arctic high pressure out of Canada that has overspread the upper Midwest and central plains," said Andrew Krein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's northern Illinois bureau.CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bitter cold and high winds surging down from the Arctic pushed wind chills to dangerous levels across the upper Midwest on Monday, forcing officials to close schools and warn drivers off roads, and slowing public transit and river traffic.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390854843542_5795" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Chicago area has not experienced a winter this cold in 30 years, since 1983-1984, Krein said, adding that wind chills in Chicago overnight could approach minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 Celsius).</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Chicago, Minneapolis and other parts of the Upper Midwest will have two consecutive days of subzero highs on Monday through Tuesday, according to forecasters. Highs will be held to the single digits and teens Tuesday and Wednesday across most of the Northeast, according to Accuweather.com.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Officials closed schools in Chicago, Cincinnati and the Cleveland area on Monday due to the biting cold, and most districts were closed across Minnesota.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Illinois Department of Transportation warned drivers of "whiteout conditions" in the northern part of the state due to high winds, and Metra, a Chicago-area commuter rail service, warned riders of weather-related delays.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The frigid temperatures also are causing ice to accumulate on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, slowing the movement of grain barges to the U.S. Gulf, according to Drew Lerner, a meteorologist at World Weather Inc.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">About 800 flights have been canceled within, into and out of the United States on Monday, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks flights.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">U.S. Storm Prediction Center forecaster Corey Mead said the cold weather pattern that has caused such cold weather east of the Rockies could ease up in the eastern United States in the next week or two but continue in the Midwest.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Chicago probably won't get any relief," Mead said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Even the South is seeing extremes this week.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Wind gusts up to 35 mph knocked down power lines in the Dallas-Forth Worth area in Texas and temperatures were expected to fall into the 20s overnight, a shocking drop from highs in the 60s and 70s over the weekend, the weather service said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Heavy snowfall is expected starting on Tuesday across eastern North Carolina, according to the weather service.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The weather service said coastal South Carolina will get rare ice accumulation with some snow and temperatures below freezing on Tuesday and Wednesday.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It's definitely not common for us," said Emily Timte, a weather service forecaster, who said the coast last had ice accumulation in 2011.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In Alaska, the roughly 4,000 residents of Valdez remained cut off to road traffic from the rest of the state Monday after weekend avalanches blocked the road into and out of the coastal town, officials said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago, David Bailey in Minneapolis, Kim Palmer in Cleveland, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C., Harriet McLeod in Charleston, S.C., and Karen Brooks in Austin; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390854843542_5848" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">(Corrects name of forecaster in 15th paragraph)</div></div>

Brutally cold weather shuts schools, delays travel in Midwest (BLOG)

By Mary Wisniewski "We have a surge of Arctic high pressure out of Canada that has overspread the upper Midwest and central plains,...

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