The bone-chilling weather that has been blamed for nine deaths so far — and slammed the Midwest with temps lower than Antarctica — will finally begin to ease up late Thursday, according to forecasters.
Until then, the National Weather Service said, temperatures will remain 25 to 45 degrees below average across several US states throughout the day — with wind-chill values as low as minus 25 to minus 55 degrees.
The cause of the sub-zero chill affecting tens of millions of people was a split in the polar vortex, a mass of cold air that normally stays bottled up in the Arctic.
A wind chill advisory is in effect in the Big Apple and surrounding areas until 10 a.m. Thursday — with frostbite possible on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes.
“Despite plenty of sunshine, very cold temperatures are expected today, with highs only rising into the teens,” the NWS said about the tri-state area. “This is approximately 20 to 25 degrees below normal for this time of year.
“While winds will gradually diminish throughout the day, wind chill values are only expected to rise to around zero by afternoon,” it added.
But the big chill will begin to ease Friday, when highs in the city reach 22 degrees, and Saturday will be partly sunny, with a high near 37 degrees, forecasters said. And next week will begin with a high of 51 on Monday and an even balmier 56 the next day, according to AccuWeather.
Chicago, meanwhile, was colder than the Canadian village of Alert, about 500 miles from the North Pole, one of the world’s most northerly inhabited places.
The Windy City could hit lows early Thursday that break its record of minus 27 set on Jan. 20, 1985.
More than 1,500 flights were canceled at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Wednesday, and almost 1,400 of Thursday’s flights were scrubbed in advance, according to NBC News.
“The dangerously cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as five minutes,” the weather service said.
The deaths included an elderly Illinois man who was found several hours after he fell trying to get into his home and a University of Iowa student found behind an academic hall several hours before dawn.
Elsewhere, a man was hit by a snowplow in the Chicago area, a young couple’s SUV struck another in northern Indiana and a Milwaukee man froze to death in a garage, officials said.
The US Postal Service said mail delivery would again be canceled Thursday across Michigan, Indiana, central Illinois and western Pennsylvania.
