Polar Vortex Cancels Hundreds Of Flights

Millions of Americans are being impacted by dangerously cold weather. Temperatures are well below zero this morning with wind chills as low as 60-below-zero. The National Weather Service says frostbite can occur in as little as five minutes on exposed skin and even hypothermia can happen if precautions aren’t taken. The NWS also urges people to protect their lungs from the cold air by avoiding deep breaths and minimize talking. Some of the upper Midwest and Great Lakes could even be colder than parts of Antarctica. Nearly 18-hundred flights have been canceled and there are more than 200 delays at airports nationwide.

Brutal arctic weather gripping the Midwest is causing thousands of flights to be canceled or delayed. Ground zero is Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where more than 40 percent of departing flights have been canceled and nearly that many headed to the Windy City. The weather is also causing headaches at the city’s Midway International, where more than 65 percent of all flights coming and down have been canceled. Also feeling the effects are passengers coming through Minneapolis/Saint Paul International. Overall, close to two thousand flights within, into or out of the U.S. have been canceled, according to the tracking site FlightAware. The cold weather has prompted states of emergency declared in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.