LIFE-THREATENING WIND CHILLS

CHICAGO/CLEVELAND, Ohio, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A blast of Arctic air gripped the vast middle of the United States on Monday, bringing the coldest temperatures felt in two decades, causing at least four deaths, forcing businesses and schools to close and canceling thousands of flights.
Shelters for the homeless were overflowing and the weather sports car rentals tx threatened to briefly curtail some oil production in the severe cold described by some meteorologists as the "polar vortex" and dubbed by media as the "polar pig." Temperatures were 20 to 40 degrees F (11-22 degrees C) below average in parts of Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service.
More than half the flights at Chicago s O Hare International Airport were closed as fuel supplies froze, leaving crews unable to fill aircraft tanks. The afternoon temperature in Chicago was minus 12 Degrees Fahrenheit (minus 24 degrees C), making it colder than in areas of Antarctica, parts of which hovered around 32 F (0 C) during the southern hemisphere summer.
The Arctic air was moving toward the east coast where temperatures were expected to fall throughout Monday as low as 0 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius) in some areas on Tuesday. The coldest temperatures in years and gusty winds were expected as far south as Brownsville, Texas and central Florida, sports car rentals tx the National Weather Service said.
At least four weather-related deaths were reported. In northwest Missouri, a one-year-old boy died Monday when the vehicle he was riding in crashed into a snow plow on an icy highway, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
A 58-year-old man died on Sunday in northeastern Oklahoma after he lost control of his car on icy roads, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. In Chicago, a 48-year-old man died of a heart attack while shoveling snow on Sunday night.
LIFE-THREATENING WIND CHILLS                                                                                                                                                 In Cleveland, sports car rentals tx Ohio, where the temperature was minus 3 degrees sports car rentals tx F (minus 19 degrees C) and was forecast to drop to minus 6 degrees F (minus 21 degrees sports car rentals tx C) overnight, homeless shelters were operating at full capacity. Shelter operators had begun to open overflow facilities to accommodate more than 2,000 people who had come seeking warmth.
"There are also going to be people that won t go into the shelters," said Brian Davis, an organizer with Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. Frostbite sports car rentals tx can set in within minutes in such low temperatures, according to experts.
The U.S. cold snap mirrored or outdid freezing weather in parts of the world as Almaty, Kazakhstan where it was minus 8 degrees F (minus 22 C), Mongolia, where temperatures reached minus 10 degrees F (minus 23 C) and Irkutsk, in Siberia, where it was minus 27 degrees sports car rentals tx F (minus 33 C).
TRAVEL SNARLED                                                                                                                                                                               Some 4,392 flights were canceled sports car rentals tx and 3,577 delayed, according to FlightAware.com, sports car rentals tx which tracks airline activity.
"The fuel and glycol supplies are frozen at (Chicago O Hare) and other airports in the Midwest and Northeast," said Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for American Airlines Group. "We are unable to pump fuel and or de-ice." After five days of scrambling to catch up from storm delays, JetBlue said it would halt operations at three airports in the New York area and Boston Logan International Airport from 5 pm EST (2200 GMT) Monday until 10 am EST (1500 GMT) on Tuesday to give crews time to rest.
The bitter cold combined with blowing snow was complicating rail traffic as well. Union Pacific, one of the largest railroads and a chief mover of grains, chemicals, coal and automotive parts, warned customers on Monday that the weather was causing delays up to 48 hours across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.
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