Chicago has an average January low temperature of 21 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s already been as low as -23 degrees today, making it more than 40 degrees colder than usual in the Windy City. Speaking of, with windchill we’re talking about the possibility of weather that feels like -50. Even for tough Chicagoans, that’s crazy cold. In fact, it’s the coldest the city has been since 1985 when it was a bone-chilling -27 degrees. Featured Video Hide So how are Chicago residents dealing with the big freeze? With shock, ingenuity, and a fair amount of humor. Advertisement Hide They’re calling the city “Chiberia” right now, a portmanteau of Chicago and Siberia. That phrase was first coined during the cold snap of 2014, although it’s worth noting it’s much colder this time around. A quick search for #chiberia on social media turns up some amazing photographs and videos that will make you shiver just looking at them. https://www.instagram.com/p/BtQ6IqlBVrj/ https://twitter.com/irshaad87/status/1090596558549204992 Advertisement Hide Obviously, people are staying indoors as much as possible, but when they do go out they’re bundling up like they’re going to explore the South Pole (where, by the way, it is currently warmer than it is in Chicago). Advertisement Hide Just before my commute this morning. -23 and -50 wind chill. I'm glad I got to skip the altitude sickness on my ride across Everest 😜 #BikeElgin #layers #vikingbiking #chiberia #winterbiking #ElginIL pic.twitter.com/4yGG1Gfnd4 — Parker A Thompson (@ParkerParadigm) January 30, 2019 And that includes residents who were born with fur coats. https://www.instagram.com/p/BtQ4OE5B306/ Advertisement Hide https://www.instagram.com/p/BtQ40UxlFim/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BtQ5C-RlhNM/ Advertisement Hide https://twitter.com/lkb273/status/1090631858856042497 Sure staying indoors seems like a great solution, but even that isn’t foolproof. Tons of people have posted about the icy conditions inside their homes. Advertisement Hide Wanna know how cold it is in #CHICAGO? Check out the ice on the INSIDE of my windows this morning! #PolarVortex STAY WARM! pic.twitter.com/nxjZTdK5l6 — Claire Scatter (@ClaireScatter) January 30, 2019 In fact, it’s gotten so cold that Chicago authorities have purposefully set fire to train tracks in order to keep them from contracting. ❄️ #PolarVortex2019: Crews set fires to keep train tracks from contracting as Chicago faces record low temperatures pic.twitter.com/VXhrKPnpX2 — QuickTake by Bloomberg (@QuickTake) January 30, 2019 But some people are braving the weather just to have a little fun. It seems that everyone wants a chance to throw some boiling water into the air and watch it turn to snow. Advertisement Hide Throwing a cup of boiling water in the air, when it’s minus 27 degrees (celsius). #chicago #PolarVortex2019 pic.twitter.com/fgRZHnwVvo — Adam Roberts (@ARobertsjourno) January 30, 2019 https://www.instagram.com/p/BtQ5Lq9jSxA/ Someone even created an official Chiberian flag. Advertisement Hide Luckily, the cold snap won’t be sticking around for too long. Friday’s high in Chicago will be a balmy 22 degrees above zero and by Saturday it will get up to 40 degrees. Way better than actual Siberia, where it will be around -35 before you factor in the windchill.<doc-sep>The Midwest, specifically Illinois, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Minnesota, has been hit by a polar vortex, a particularly nasty blast of frigid weather. To say that it's freezing in these four states right now is putting it mildly, with Chicago and other cities in the region set to reach record-low temperatures. While residents of these four states are used to tough winters, the polar vortex takes being cold to a whole new level. People across social media have let it be known just how cold it's gotten, with temperatures reaching as low as minus 42 fahrenheit in Park Rapids, Minnesota. The National Weather Service has warned people in those regions to stay indoors, citing "life-threatening wind chills." If you're not in the Midwest, don't breathe easily just yet. AccuWeather meteorologist Rob Richards told USA TODAY that even Atlanta could "receive a coating to an inch of snow." Speaking about the Midwest in particular, he added, “I cannot stress how dangerously cold it will be. An entire generation has gone by without experiencing this type of cold." Chicago has taken a good brunt of the cold weather, and the city's residents have posted videos and photos on Twitter to highlight what they're currently experiencing. From frost indoors to boiling water instantly evaporating upon facing the cold air, this polar vortex is no joke. Check out scenes from the extreme cold spell below.<doc-sep>Brian Marchal isn’t afraid of a little cold weather. As the founder of the Chicago Polar Bear Club, he has been jumping into frigid Lake Michigan every January for more than 15 years now. But the polar vortex that froze much of the midwest and all but shut down Chicago and other midwest cities this week was too much to handle even for Marchal – a man who had, with about 350 other Chicagoans, taken a chilly dip in the lake just a few days earlier. “I didn’t even step outside my door yesterday,” Marchal said on Thursday, as the city’s temperatures remained well below zero. “It’s too cold for me.” The deep freeze began Wednesday, dropping air temperatures here in Chicago to more than 20 degrees below zero and around 50 below with the withering winds. At -23F (-30.5C), the arctic chill flirted with – but didn’t quite hit – the city’s lowest recorded temperature of -27F in 1985. Still, it was undoubtedly historic, plunging the city to its fourth-lowest recorded temperatures on record, temporarily closing businesses, attractions and some services, including mail delivery, and posing a significant safety risk to people here, particularly the city’s homeless population. But the extreme cold also immediately took its place in the history of this city, whose unforgiving winters are often regarded as rites of passage here. Chicagoans of a certain age are fond of reminiscing about the punishing weather of yore: the Blizzard of 1967 that buried the city in 6ft-tall snowdrifts; the crushing winter of 1979, the snowiest on record here; and even the winter of 2013-14, which was notable not for a single storm but for a seemingly interminable onslaught of cold and snow over the course of several months. A woman is reflected in the snow covered sculpture Cloud Gate as she walks through Millennium Park during blizzard conditions in Chicago, Illinois on 1 February 2015. Photograph: Jim Young/REUTERS To those legendary winters, add the polar vortex of 2019, which has turned Chicago into “Chiberia” and inspired in its citizens nearly as much wonder as woe. As the city endured extreme cold Wednesday and Thursday, it was also met with stunning images of steam rising off a frozen Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. For as much inconvenience the weather caused – it made a nightmare of work commutes – it also inspired solidarity among Chicagoans, who used the occasion to engage in some science experiments and to get some laughs out of the oppressive cold. While the brutal cold has kept many off the streets here, the daily grind has also continued on. Bars put out signs advertising drink deals as the “antidote to the polar vortex”. Workers on construction sites labored in the shivering air. And residents like Roberto Bonilla continued about their days. Bonilla had flown from a job interview in New York back home to Chicago on Wednesday, as the city’s temperatures plummeted below those of Antarctica and, at times, parts of Mars. He could feel the withering chill just walking through the tunnel between the airplane and the terminal, and as he took an El train back north from Midway Airport on the city’s far south side. “It was so damn cold,” he said. On Thursday, Bonilla was boarding a red line train to his eye appointment in the Loop. The freeze wasn’t as bad as it was the day before, he said, but it was still brutal. “It’s cold as hell,” he said, clad in a long black coat and his face barely visible between his scarf and hat. “It’s ungodly.” A man braves the freezing weather in Chicago, Illinois Thursday. Photograph: Kamil Krzaczyński/EPA But the freeze is expected to relent, with temperatures expected in the 20s on Friday and even rising up into the mid-40s this weekend – a temperature swing that could come with its own problems, such as water main breaks. For Marchal, that means staying safely inside and embracing the tangential benefits of the historic cold while it lasts. “It is absolutely amazing what we’re seeing out there right now,” he said. “We don’t get weather days too often in Chicago, so we might as well stay in and enjoy it.”<doc-sep>Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling of WGN-TV in Chicago took this video at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning from a balcony in Chicago’s North Side Edgewater neighborhood. Skilling told the station that as -20 degree air comes into contact with the water, Lake Michigan looks like “a boiling cauldron.” Temperatures at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport fell to a dangerously low -23 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday, with a wind chill, described by Skilling as “barbaric,” of -52. Part of a historic freeze across the Midwest and East Coast, those temperatures are the second-coldest ever recorded in 148 years of record-keeping in the Windy City, surpassed only by Dec. 24, 1983, when the low hit -25 degrees there with a wind chill of -57. Amazingly, conditions are expected to rise in Chicago almost 80 degrees into the 50s by Monday. Drone footage shot by WGN on Wednesday shows scenes from across the frozen city. By comparison, the high temperature Wednesday in San Jose was 66 degrees — 89 degrees warmer than in Chicago.<doc-sep>
The Polar Vortex freezing thousands of people in the Midwest is bringing some of the coldest temperatures on record. The National Weather Service previously warned that parts of the U.S. could feel a wind chill of negative 63 degrees Fahrenheit thanks to the arctic winds, which could cause frostbite within minutes. On Wednesday, the National Weather Service announced that temperatures should become moderate again later in the week. "An arctic front which has ushered in record cold temperatures across the Midwest will move into the eastern U.S. today. However, temperatures are expected to gradually moderate late in the week," the National Weather Service tweeted on Wednesday. An arctic front which has ushered in record cold temperatures across the Midwest will move into the eastern U.S. today. However, temperatures are expected to gradually moderate late in the week. pic.twitter.com/eV8d3XIsj9 — NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) January 30, 2019 A Polar Vortex is cold air that typically spins around in the North Pole, but can blast cold air into parts of North America. Many have decided to stay home to keep warm. CBS Chicago Reporter Jim Williams took a drive this morning with few cars on the road. "11 [am], Lake Shore Drive: Fewer cars than on an early weekend morning. #Chiberia," Williams tweeted, along with the video. 11a, Lake Shore Drive: Fewer cars than on an early weekend morning. #Chiberia @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/YlGp9dKbx0 — Jim Williams (@JimWilliamsCBS2) January 30, 2019 Those who decided to stay indoors to beat the cold are keeping busy by posting videos of themselves throwing a cup of boiling water into the freezing air. Throwing a cup of boiling water in the air, when it’s minus 27 degrees (celsius). #chicago #PolarVortex2019 pic.twitter.com/fgRZHnwVvo — Adam Roberts (@ARobertsjourno) January 30, 2019 While others are staying indoors trying to keep warm, the U.S. Navy tweeted sailors embracing the cold and working despite the freezing temperatures. "While we hunker down back home because of the #PolarVortex in the United States, the cold doesn't stop our forward deployed #USNavy Sailors from maintaining #NavyReadiness in the #BalticSea – like #USSPorter demonstrating one of @CNORichardson's core attributes: Toughness!" the U.S. Navy tweeted on Wednesday. While we hunker down back home because of the #PolarVortex in the United States, the cold doesn't stop our forward deployed #USNavy Sailors from maintaining #NavyReadiness in the #BalticSea – like #USSPorter demonstrating one of @CNORichardson's core attributes: Toughness! pic.twitter.com/k0cygmqJ9o — U.S. Navy (@USNavy) January 30, 2019 Places like Chicago and Michigan got the brunt of the arctic winds, with parts of Chicago that are colder than parts of Antarctica. In this photo, commuters wait for an L train in Illinois in sub-zero temperatures on Thursday. Businesses and schools have shut down for the day due to the cold temperatures, according to Accuweather. Mail delivery has also been suspended in places like Michigan, Missouri and Indiana until temperatures rise. In this photo, the James Versluis breaks ice on the frozen Chicago River in Illinois on Thursday. On Thursday evening, a snow squall was issued for New York by the National Weather Service. The snow squall is expected to have winds up to 50 mph and zero visibility, according to the weather service.