Polar vortex keeps much of U.S. in an icy grip

Heavy snow falls as a person walks along U.S. Route 42 in Florence, Ky., Monday. The polar vortex of ultracold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes plunges southward into the U.S. and other countries. Carolyn Kaster — The Associated Press

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By Patrick Whittle and Brian Witte

The Associated Press

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A huge swath of the U.S. was blasted with ice, snow and wind on Monday as the polar vortex that dipped south over the weekend kept much of the country east of the Rockies in its frigid grip, making many roads treacherous, forcing school closures, and causing widespread power outages and flight cancellations.

The immense storm system brought disruption to areas of the country that usually escape winter’s wrath, downing trees in some Southern states, threatening a freeze in Florida and causing people in Dallas to dip deep into their wardrobes for hats and gloves.

Ice and snow blanketed major roads in Kansas, western Nebraska and parts of Indiana, where the National Guard was activated to help stranded motorists. The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for Kansas and Missouri, where blizzard conditions brought wind gusts of up to 45 mph. The warnings extended to New Jersey into early Tuesday.

The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes plunges southward into the U.S., Europe and Asia. Studies show that a fast-warming Arctic is partly to blame for the increasing frequency of the polar vortex extending its grip.

Starting Monday, the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. dealt with bone-chilling cold and wind chills, forecasters said, predicting temperatures ranging from 12 to 25 degrees below normal in many areas.

The Northeast was expected to get several cold days, said Jon Palmer, a weather service meteorologist based in Gray, Maine.

The cold was expected to grip the Eastern Seaboard as far south as Georgia, with temperatures dropping into the low single digits in some coastal areas, Palmer said.

School closings were widespread, with districts in Indiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas canceling or delaying the start of classes Monday. Among them was Kentucky’s Jefferson County Public Schools, which canceled classes and other school activities for its nearly 100,000 students.

At least 600 motorists were stranded in Missouri over the weekend, authorities said. Hundreds of car accidents were reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky, where a state trooper was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after his patrol car was hit.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who declared a state emergency, said government buildings would be closed Monday.

“We see far too many wrecks out there for people that do not have to be on the roads,” Beshear said.

Kansas saw two deadly crashes over the weekend. Gov. Laura Kelly closed state offices in the Topeka area through Tuesday, as did many school districts.

Many were in the dark as temperatures plunged. More than 250,000 customers were without power early Monday across Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois and Missouri, according to electric utility tracking website PowerOutage.us.

In Virginia’s capital city, a power outage caused a temporary malfunction in the water system, officials said Monday afternoon. Richmond officials asked citizens in the city of more than 200,000 people to refrain from drinking tap water or washing dishes without boiling the water first. The city also asked residents to conserve their water, such as by taking shorter showers.

City officials said they were working nonstop to bring the system back online.