Polar vortex ‘evaporating’ as death toll from US cold snap hits 21

The brutally cold weather that has caused the deaths of at least 21 people in the US is forecast to end at the weekend as the polar vortex moves away.

The record-breaking cold snap, which has seen temperatures in some parts of the country sink as low as -49C (-56F), will give way to milder, snow-melting temperatures of around 7-11C (45-52F) from Saturday, the US National Weather Service (NWS) said.

“The cold air isn’t pushing off anywhere, it’s just sort of evaporating,” Brian Hurley, a NWS meteorologist, said.

“So we’re going from 21 below zero (Fahrenheit) (-29C) in Chicago on Thursday morning to near 50 above (10C) on Monday. It’ll feel like a heatwave.”

America’s third largest city, where about 3.8cm (1.5in) of snow fell overnight into Friday, endured its second coldest day ever recorded on Thursday, but it has been even colder in parts of the upper Midwest.

The coldest recorded temperature was -49C (-56F) in Cotton, Minnesota, on Thursday, when more than 40 cold temperature records were broken, on what was the coldest morning since the polar vortex arrived on Tuesday.

It is all expected to change by Saturday, however, when the region will be basking in highs of between 2C (36F) and 6C (43F), forecasters say.

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Skynews