Washington, Jan 16:
More than 142 million people across the US are under a wind chill alert on Monday, as frigid Arctic air hangs over much of the country.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said the heartland of the US will likely experience record-breaking cold.
Temperatures in Montana are forecast to plunge below -50F (-45C). And temperatures in Iowa are expected to plummet to a life-threatening -35 degrees Fahrenheit (-37 Celsius.
Wind chills are expected to reach -58 degrees Fahrenheit (-50 Celsius) in places such as Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota.The cold is thanks to an Arctic air mass that has travelled southeast into the US from western Canada – where it set record-low temperatures.
The winter weather has disrupted normalcy in America with public events cancelled and flight services totally thrown out of gear.
At Portland in Oregon state power outages have forced more than 100,000 households and businesses to weather the cold without any heat or electricity for the last three days.Another surge of Arctic air is expected to travel southward from Canada later this week, which could lead to more frigid temperatures across the Midwest and deep South.
Meteorologists have dubbed this winter storm as a “bomb cyclone” – an unofficial term for this type of powerful, rapidly strengthening storm.
