Icy conditions enveloped most areas of the United States, from Texas to Ohio to Tennesee, resulting in very cold temperatures, treacherous road conditions, and power outages, according to the Huffington Post. Because of the icy conditions, three deaths were reported, with two fatalities in Arlington TX and one in Oklahoma, OK.
In other parts of the U.S., namely Montana and South Dakota, News 24 reported that temperatures fell to -29 degrees Celsius last Saturday, with the Midwest registering temperatures in the teens and single digits.
It was also reported that four people have died due to hypothermia in the San Francisco Bay area, as well as nearly half a dozen deaths due to road accidents blamed on the weather spell over the area.
The current weather pattern has been described as "dangerous" by CBS News, as wind chill readings have gone to as low as 45 degrees below zero, the coldest temperatures recorded in the last two years. The coldest wind chill was at 54 degrees below zero at Grand Marais in Minnesota.
Flights from the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport were cut in half because of the weather. The airport had said over 3,000 people stayed at the airport overnight.
The state Emergency Management office in Virginia, through spokeswoman Laura Southard, said the storm is a "historic ice event" in the state. She said, as reported on CTV News, "This forecast is very concerning to us. I've worked multiple disasters, but I've never worked an ice storm with a forecast like this. It's just really important for everybody to take extra precautions."
The National Weather Service had also issued a wind chill advisory for parts of the Missouri boot heel and northeastern Arkansas. Many experts and meteorologists predict that wind chill readings will be somewhere betweeen zero and minus 5 degrees.
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