CHICAGO — Midwesterners trudged ahead Thursday into a familiar, grim reality: temperatures well below zero, schools and businesses closed, stern warnings to wear extra layers or, better yet, just stay indoors. The polar vortex that arrived earlier this week has for days disrupted life across an entire region. And, for one more day, even stepping outside remained a painful, risky experience. By Thursday night, temperatures across much of the Midwest were expected to poke above zero. A band of snow complicated travel on Thursday, and in the Northeast, officials warned of their own cold wave, with heavy snow in some places and subzero wind chills in others.

Source: New York Times January 31, 2019 14:44 UTC