CHICAGO — A deep, brutal cold set in across the Midwest on Wednesday, sending temperatures plummeting to depths that stunned even Midwesterners, a group accustomed to shrugging off winter. The cold that seized the middle of the country was the sort that makes cars moan, that makes breathing hurt, that makes any bit of exposed skin sting.
Cities like Chicago had been preparing for the deep freeze for days, so when it arrived, much of life had come to a standstill. Colleges were closed in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, schools were closed all around, and even the United States Postal Service had stopped deliveries in some places. Workers were sent home, meetings canceled, parties called off.
Here are the latest developments:
• Temperatures plummeted and could break records. Minneapolis dipped as low as minus 28, with the wind chill reaching minus 53, the National Weather Service said. Chicago got to minus 23, with a windchill of minus 50. And Milwaukee hit minus 20, with a wind chill of minus 47.
• As many as five deaths have been reported to be connected to the Midwest’s dangerously cold weather system, according to The Associated Press, including a man hit by a snow plow in the Chicago region, a man believed to have frozen to death in a Milwaukee garage, and a couple killed in a vehicle accident on an Indiana road. Local outlets in Detroit reported that a 70-year-old man was found dead near his home in what the police described as “limited clothes.”
• Officials throughout the region have declared states of emergency, warned of frostbite and hypothermia, and urged residents to heed guidelines that ultimately boiled down to two words: Stay inside.
• More than 2,000 flights were canceled across the United States, according to FlightAware, most of which were heading into or out of the frozen Midwest.
The temperature at Montrose Harbor on Chicago’s North Side on Wednesday was 21 degrees below zero, with a fierce wind gusting from the west. That didn’t deter Iggy Ignoffo, who stood at the edge of Lake Michigan, wearing sunglasses and a warm cap, hands stuffed in his pockets.
“I could see Venus, Jupiter and the moon a little while ago,” he said, pointing to the sky. “Beautiful.” Sea smoke rose from the lake, the result of extremely cold air blowing over warmer water. The downtown skyline was visible in the distance, several miles away.
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The harbor was hardly deserted: a stream of curious people ducked in and out of their cars, snapping pictures, taking a brief frolic in the snow.
Mr. Ignoffo and his wife come down to the harbor all the time, he said, one of the most photogenic spots in the city. This time, she stayed in the car.
“Now I’m going to take a swim,” Mr. Ignoffo said, beginning the walk back to his car. “Indoors.”
Schools across a broad section of the nation canceled classes as the dangerous freeze descended, and some said they were pondering canceling classes again on Thursday. Many Midwestern institutions lean toward staying open through snowstorms and cold spells, but this one was different. For a second consecutive day, students on Wednesday were told to stay home at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where there was a forecast high of minus 3, relatively warm compared with other parts of the Midwest.
The roughly 44,000 students at the University of Wisconsin had Wednesday off, as temperatures at the Madison campus were expected to dip to minus 30 by evening. University officials had come under criticism for keeping the campus open on Monday and Tuesday in subzero weather.
Hundreds of thousands of younger students in schools across the country’s midsection also had no classes on Wednesday. Administrators in school districts in and around Cincinnati, worried about students walking to school in the cold or the possibility of a bus breaking down in the cold, called off class.
Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky apparently disagreed with the decision by many schools and colleges in that state to shut down on Wednesday. “We’re getting soft,” Mr. Bevin, a Republican, said during a radio interview on Tuesday. The forecast high in Louisville on Wednesday was 9 degrees, with a wind chill as low as minus 15.
A day home from school had some students rejoicing, but many may have to make it up later. A banner across the website of the Park Hill School District in suburban Kansas City, Mo., told students to stay home but offered an added note: The school year will be extended by a day.
Despite the extreme cold, aircraft icing was not a major concern on Wednesday, because there wasn’t enough precipitation for ice to build up. And planes have no trouble flying in such extreme temperatures (it can be as cold as minus 70 degrees at flight level), but ground equipment is more susceptible to the cold — not to mention the ground crew.
United Airlines canceled about 500 flights into and out of Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Wednesday through Thursday morning, with most of the affected flights involving other Midwestern airports. American Airlines canceled about 400, including 170 at its Chicago hub.
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