A polar vortex is descending upon the Midwest this week, bringing the coldest weather there in a generation. Snow has already blanketed Chicago, and that will be followed by life-threatening arctic temperatures that will extend from Illinois west through North and South Dakota until Thursday.
Rich Otto, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, tells NPR, “These are probably some of the coldest temperatures that the area has seen, parts of the upper Midwest, since the mid-’90s.”
Otto says wind will drive the temperatures down even further. “The other thing to consider with the cold temperatures are going to be the winds, and so the winds in combination with the cold temperatures are going to allow for some dangerously cold wind chills, values as cold as minus 30 to minus 50 degrees in a couple locations, and even colder as you get farther north, into parts of Minnesota, where some of those wind chills could get down to minus 60,” Otto says.
Read this story now for free
To continue reading, sign up for our newsletter and get unlimited access to WABE.org
You can select your preferences for news and local content. We will never share your email address. Learn how your newsletter sign-up will support WABE and Public Media
