Arctic cold wave in the United States: warn that it will reach temperatures of up to -50 ° C

(Univision news report)

Extreme cold is emerging around the midwestern region of the United States after a fierce winter storm which has thrown a thick layer of snow on the region and the authorities urge the population to take precautionary measures.

Both in Chicago as in Minneapolis, clbades were canceled for Wednesday, while cold temperatures have not been expected for a quarter of a century.

"It is very dangerous, it is a situation in which a person can suffer from hypothermia in a few minutes or even in a few seconds"said Brian Hurley, meteorologist at the Climate Prediction Center.

Temperatures will begin to drop precipitately on Tuesdaybut Wednesday will be the worst day. In northern Illinois, the thermometer will indicate -48 degrees Celsius (-55 Fahrenheit), which, according to the National Weather Service "It could be deadly."

According to the NWS, "Extreme and dangerous cold is expected from the northern plains to the Great Lakes with minima ranging from -30 ° C to -40 ° C, with icy gusts of -50 ° C".

In Minnesota temperatures will drop to -34 ° C (-30 ° F), but with the wind, it will feel 51 degrees Celsius below zero (60 degrees Fahrenheit below zero).

In Milwaukee a cold of -33 ° C (-28 ° F) is expected, which with the wind will be closer to -45 ° C (-50 ° F). This would exceed the current record of -32 ° C recorded in 1996.

"It's not only unusual, we're talking about 40 degrees below normal, if you think about it a little bit, it's really amazing"Hurley said.

The icy air is due to the sudden warming of the atmosphere just above the North Pole. A current of warm air from Morocco last month caused a rise in air temperature at the North Pole. It has split into pieces of the polar vortex and these fragments have begun to migrate, said Judah Cohen, an expert at the Institute for Studies on the Atmosphere and the Environment.

One of these polar vectors is the one that caused the freezing temperatures that submerged this week the west-central United States.

In Chicago, the Brookfield Zoo closed for fear that the cold will hurt the animals or employees, this is only the fourth time in 85 years that the park was founded.

At Chicago's O 'Hare International Airport, the maximum temperature will be -25 ° C (-14 ° F), which will exceed the record of 18 January 1994.