06/01/2014

'Polar vortex' grips North America

                          A woman walks across a street in St. Louis as snow and wind swirls around on 5 January 2014

                         A man using a snowblower in Lawrence, Kansas, on Sunday

                        A plane is seen after it skidded off a runway after landing at John F Kennedy airport on Sunday
Parts of the US are braced for potentially record-breaking low temperatures as a "polar vortex" brings more freezing weather. A winter storm has already blanketed areas of Canada and the north-eastern US with up to 2ft (60 cm) of snow.

It has been blamed for 16 deaths in recent days and the cancellation of more than 3,700 flights this weekend. Schools in Chicago are among those closing as officials tell people to stay indoors on Monday.


Meanwhile, a plane from Toronto slid into snow as it turned onto a taxiway after landing at New York's JFK airport on Sunday.


No-one was hurt in the incident but all flights at the airport were suspended for two hours because of icy runways. BBC Weather's John Hammond explains the effects of a "polar vortex"
The plunging temperatures result from the polar vortex, an anti-clockwise pool of cold, dense air.

The vortex has been very strong, with the cold air locked in to Arctic Canada for a long time. Stuck in one place, the air has got colder and colder. Cold air is dense so once it is released it travels a long way and that is why it is penetrating so far southwards, John Hammond from the BBC Weather Centre says.

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Temperatures in the north and central US could feel as low as -60F (-51C) with the effect of wind chill, forecasters say.

Authorities have warned residents to remain indoors, both for their own safety and to keep roads clear for snow removal.

In Canada, thousands of people on the island of Newfoundland remain without power due to a transformer fire linked to heavy snow.

'Bitterly cold'
"The coldest weather in years will be making its presence known from the Upper Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic region for the beginning of the work week," the US National Weather Service said in a statement.

The states of Ohio, South Dakota and Illinois are among those set to be hit. Tennessee and Kentucky are forecast to see several inches of snow.

The weather service said "an incredibly strong surge of bitterly cold Arctic air" was sweeping across the country until Tuesday.

It is set to continue to the north-east, where residents are still digging out from the week's deadly snowstorm.



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