Life-threatening arctic blast causes waterfalls to freeze and windows to crack as officials warn frostbite is possible with 30 minutes of exposure as temperatures plunge to record-breaking lows in northern US

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

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Freezing cold weather has taken hold of much of the northern United States
and will stay into the New Year
Forecasters warn of hypothermia and frostbite from arctic air settling in
over central U.S. and spreading east
International Falls, Minnesota plunged to 37 degrees below zero, breaking
old record of 32 below set in 1924
Plus Hibbing, Minnesota, bottomed out at 28 below, breaking the old record
of 27 below set in 1964
The cold weather has caused the Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota
to completely freeze
Wind chill advisories or warnings are in effect for much of New England,
northern Pennsylvania and New York
New England, New York, the northern Plains and Great Lakes are projected
to see highs in the teens or single digits and lows below zero days ahead


The arctic blast that's bringing negative temperatures to several states
across the northern U.S. is causing waterfalls to freeze, windows to crack
and people to suffer life-threatening frostbite with just 30 minutes of
exposure outside.

Forecasters are warning for those who are outside to bundle up with layers
to protect against hypothermia and frostbite that could happen with
exposure in the bitter arctic.

The icy cold weather has turned the Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis,
Minnesota into a beautiful frozen wonderland. The popular attraction has
completely frozen over due to the super cold single-digit temperatures
that have gripped the state over the past few days.

The Minnehaha Creek flows from Lake Minnetonka, which is the biggest lake
in the Twin Cities, to the Mississippi River. The falls are just a few
miles from where the creek enters the Mississippi River.

The National Weather Service reported International Falls, Minnesota, the
self-proclaimed Icebox of the Nation, plunged to 37 degrees below zero,
breaking the old record of 32 below set in 1924.

Hibbing, Minnesota, bottomed out at 28 below, breaking the old record of
27 below set in 1964.

'Bitterly cold arctic air will settle in across a large swath of the U.S.
as we turn the calendar from 2017 to 2018,' said AccuWeather Senior
Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski.

Forecasters predict freezing temperatures for much of the Northeast and
Midwest into the New Year
New Year's Eve temperatures are predicted to be to be around 12 degrees in
the Big Apple, but it will feel dramatically colder due to the wind chill
The Great Lakes may get 1-3 inches of snow creating slippery travel in the
Interstate 70, 80 and 90 corridors of the Plains and Midwest
Meteorologists are also cautioning a possible snow threat for the
Northeast region over New Year's weekend
If two storms merge, Philadelphia to New York City to Boston and Portland,
Maine will see snow Friday to Saturday
There is an ice threat for coastal cities in Georgia and South Carolina on
Thursday to early Friday
It's so cold officials in New Jersey canceled a New Year's Day 'polar bear
plunge' in which swimmers dash into the Atlantic Ocean


'People will really need to bundle up if they are heading out Sunday night
for New Year's Eve celebrations in places like Chicago, for example, where
the high will be 15 F on Sunday, around 15 degrees below normal.'

In addition, the dangerously cold weather has caused windows in Canada to
crack. Wind chill advisories or warnings were in effect for much of New
England, northern Pennsylvania and New York.

Those places and states in the northern Plains and Great Lakes were
projected to see highs in the teens or single digits and lows below zero
for the rest of the week and into the new year.

The National Weather Service said wind chills in many areas Thursday could
make temperatures feel below zero.

Prolonged, dangerous cold weather this week has sent advocates for the
homeless scrambling to get people off the streets and to bring in extra
beds for them.

A dog has been found frozen solid on an Ohio home's porch as a bitter cold
snap grips much of the United States.

Toledo humane society cruelty investigator Megan Brown tells The Blade
newspaper she doesn't know how long the dog was outside Thursday, when
Toledo's high temperature was expected to be in the teens

A second dog was recovered shivering inside the home.

The dogs' owner says utilities had been shut off but he had been providing
for the dogs while living elsewhere. He says he doesn't know how one dog
got outside.

Frozen pipes and dead car batteries added to the misery across the Midwest
and Northeast regions.

It's so cold, officials in New Jersey canceled a New Year's Day 'polar
bear plunge' in which swimmers dash into the Atlantic Ocean.

People in Erie, Pennsylvania, continued to dig out from a storm that
brought 34 inches of snow on Christmas Day, smashing the daily snowfall
record for the Great Lakes city of 8 inches, and 26.5 more inches on
Tuesday.

More than 65 inches total fell on the city in just a few days.

Strong westerly winds over Lake Erie picked up moisture, developed into
snow and converged with opposing winds, dumping snow in a band along the
shore from Ohio to New York, said Zach Sefcovic, a National Weather
Service meteorologist in Cleveland.

Sabrina Ram drove into Erie on Christmas Eve to visit her parents just as
the snow began to fall.

Ram, who lives in suburban Washington, D.C., and her father spent five
hours on Christmas and two hours on Tuesday clearing the driveway.

'In D.C., we'd be out of commission for weeks,' Ram said. 'Things here are
pretty much back to normal now.'

In New York, communities near Lake Ontario's eastern end, including
Redfield and Boylston, also saw around 5 feet of snow this week.

Officials said the storm's timing was good, since people were off the
streets and staying home for Christmas, giving plows more space to clear
streets.

By Wednesday, Erie's roads were relatively clear, emergency calls were
relatively slow and the big task was digging out, County Executive Kathy
Dahlkemper said.

'We're used to a lot of snow here in Erie, but this is unprecedented, the
amount we got,' Dahlkemper said.

The Department of Energy has projected energy fuel costs are going to
track upward. That falls on the heels of two winters when costs were
relatively low.

Elizabeth Parker, 88, of Sanford, Maine, said she lives in fear of running
out of fuel and remains vigilant in monitoring the gauge outside her
trailer, just in case, especially during cold weather.

She said she is allowed to request a fuel delivery thanks to federal aid -
but only when her gauge dips to one-eighth of a tank.

'I couldn't get along without it,' said Parker, who lives with her 93-
year-old husband, Robert, along with a cat, dog and four birds.

Mark Wolfe, an official with the National Energy Assistance Directors'
Association, said the good news is that President Donald Trump has
released 90 percent of the energy assistance funding which totals to
nearly $3billion. Trump previously tried to eliminate the program
altogether.

But projected energy cost increases will effectively reduce the purchasing
power by $330 million, making it imperative that the remaining funding be
released, said Mark Wolfe, of the National Energy Assistance Directors'
Association.

This winter, energy costs were projected to grow by 12 percent for natural
gas, 17 percent for home heating oil, 18 percent for propane and 8 percent
for electricity, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration.

But energy prices this winter may even be higher than those projections.

According to Wolfe, colder weather could lead to even higher levels of
consumption, and resulting prices could push the cost of winter heating up
to $1,800 this winter for those using heating oil, 45 percent more than
last year's level.

'That's a scary situation for people who're really struggling to heat
their homes,' said Barbara Crider, of Maine's York County Community Action
Agency.

The cold air is lingering with more arctic air sweeping into the region,
reaching as far south as Texas and the Florida Panhandle through the
weekend.

The Windy City might be known for its deep dish pizza, but an usual and
different kind of circular-shaped phenomenon is currently taking over Lake
Michigan.

The so-called 'snow pancakes' or circular ice sheets have started
appearing along the shore of Chicago's iconic lake.

The lily pad-shaped ice forms first began appearing this week in a
secluded bay near North Avenue Beach in the popular city that's currently
experiencing sub-zero temperatures thanks to an arctic cold blast.

Captivating photos and videos of the lake show hundreds of rounded ice
shapes that resemble flat pancakes across the water.

Experts say they're formed when sections of ice collide, their edges
become rounded and raised.

The cool result of the contact is ice rounded into the shape of pancakes
or lily pads.

They often meld together to form a sheet of ice pancakes, which is what
appears to have happened in Chicago.

This feature is most common in the frigidly cold oceans around the world
such as the Baltic Sea and Antarctica.

If the ice is thick enough, and the water is rough enough, the ice can
fracture and bend to pile up on itself forming what are known as ice
ridges, according to National Geographic.

It doesn't look like the ice pancakes will disappear anytime soon as the
frigid temperatures in Chicago are expected to last through the New Year
and possibly longer.

The high for Wednesday in the Windy City was 9 degrees Fahrenheit, and it
will drop to a low of five degrees when the sun goes down at night.

The Midwest and Northeast are experiencing bitterly cold temperatures with
sub-zero arctic air and dangerously cold wind chills.

The brutal cold front is currently clobbering several states with many of
the temperatures only reaching a high in the 20s and lows in the single
digits well below the freezing point.

Wind chill advisories or warnings are in effect for all of North Dakota
and Wisconsin, as well as swaths of South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa,
Illinois Michigan and Indiana.

In addition, wind chill advisories are also in effect for parts of Maine,
Vermont, New Hampshire and New York.

For revelers hitting the town on New Year's Eve in Chicago, the
temperature during the day will be a high of 17 degrees with a low of
negative three when the clock strikes 12 ushering in 2018.



--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.

ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.

Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.