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The polar vortex in the US continued inflicting severe conditions across the country on Thursday, with temperatures reaching minus 40F - and a town in Michigan called Hell quite literally freezing over.
Chicago was on track to break the city’s record of -32C (-26F), set more than 30 years ago as the cold snap intensifies.
Some nearby isolated areas could see temperatures as low as -40C (-40F), that would break the Illinois record of minus 38C (-36.4F) set in 1999.
Wind chills reportedly made it feel like -45C (-49F) or worse.
Polar vortex brings temperatures colder than Antarctica to the US
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The blast of polar air that enveloped much of the Midwest on Wednesday closed schools and businesses and strained infrastructure with some of the lowest temperatures in a generation.
The deep freeze snapped rail lines, cancelled hundreds of flights and strained utilities.
Trains and buses in Chicago operated with few passengers as the hardiest commuters ventured out only after covering nearly every square inch of flesh against the extreme chill, which froze ice crystals on eyelashes and eyebrows in minutes.
Crews in Detroit will need days to repair water mains that burst on 30 January, and other pipes can still burst in persistent subzero temperatures.
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Temperatures are expected to improve later this week and more people are expected to return to work in the nation’s third largest city.
Meanwhile, cities like Chicago reportedly experienced "frost quakes," a phenomenon caused by freezing and expanding water under the ground and causes earthquake-like effects.
See The Independent's live coverage of the polar vortex across the United States on Thursday as it happened below:
United Parcel Service says it has halted deliveries in about 250 zip codes in the Midwest and western New York because of concerns for the safety of those making deliveries in the extreme cold .
UPS Chief Operating Officer Jim Barber said Thursday that most of the routes that won't receive deliveries are in rural areas. He says drivers delivering in cities have a chance to warm up while making deliveries to businesses.
UPS says it stopped deliveries to about 100 zip codes on Wednesday. The Post Office says there are 42,000 zip codes across the country.
Record-low temperatures are still being set in parts of Iowa.
It was minus 30F (minus 34C) Thursday morning in Cedar Rapids, according to the Associated Press, breaking the previous record of -21F (-29C) set on 31 January. The low of -28F (-33C) in Iowa City was 10 degrees colder than the previous record of -18F (-28C) set in 1996.
New lows for the date also were set in Dubuque and Waterloo.
A meteorologist says parts of the northern U.S. are going to experience an "unprecedented" and "dramatic warm-up."
Weather Underground's meteorology director Jeff Masters says places in Michigan and Illinois experiencing record or near-record cold this week are expected to be around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) by Monday.
He said Thursday that he hasn't before seen a 70-degree shift in temperature during the winter. He says "past record-cold waves have not dissipated this quickly" and that the region seems headed for "spring-like temperatures."
The painfully cold weather system holding much of the Midwest in a historic deep freeze sent temperatures plunging to a record low in northern Illinois on Thursday, but a dramatic swing of as much as 80 degrees is expected by early next week.
Disruptions caused by the cold will also persist, including power outages and canceled flights and trains. Crews in Detroit will need days to repair water mains that burst Wednesday.
Schools in parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa remained closed Thursday. But students headed back to school Thursday in eastern North Dakota, where the weather was forecast to crawl out of double-digit subzero temperatures.
Perhaps suitably, a town in Michigan called Hell has frozen over, according to local reports, with one groundskeeper telling a news outlet, “It’s a brutal day in Hell. It’s colder than hell.”
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