Beiruting News

Some areas in the United States dropped to their coldest temperatures in years as a polar vortex flooded the country from Canada, spreading into the Midwest and expanding to other states from coast to coast.
Authorities in many states called on people to stay indoors, because the cold made usual daily activities risky and sometimes life-threatening. One of those following the advice was a Kentucky prisoner, who had escaped from a minimum-security facility in Lexington, but turned himself in because of cold temperatures.

 

The cold, which affected an estimated 190 million in the US, was too much even for a polar bear at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. While normally the species is able to survive Arctic winters, the zoo's, Anana, lacks the necessary thick layer of fat, so she was kept inside on Monday.

 

The cold snap broke numerous temperature records for January 7 across the country, some of which had stood for many decades. New York City plummeted to -15 degrees Celsius, beating the previous record of -14 degrees set in 1896. Temperature in Charlotte, North Carolina, went as low as -14 degrees, breaking the -12-degree record of 1884.

 

Even states not usually associated with ice, saw temperatures going sub-zero on Tuesday. It was -8 degrees Celsius on top of Hawaii's dormant volcano, Mauna Kea. Florida's coastal city of Pensacola experienced temperature of -8 degrees.

 

 

The cold snap sent energy consumption through the roof. On Tuesday the demand for natural gas in America set a new record, beating the one set on the previous day, according to Jack Weixel, director of energy analysis at Bentek Energy. Tennessee Valley Authority said on Tuesday that morning power demand had reached the second-highest peak in the history of the Depression-era-established utility.

 

In South Carolina, a large utility used 15-minute rolling blackouts to handle demand, but there were no reports of widespread outages in the South.

 

The snow and cold disrupted air traffic, with more than 11,000 flights canceled over four days.

Source: RT.com