'Polar vortex' grips the US in coldest temperatures in decades

Telegraph
" Around 140 million people, slightly less than half of the American population, were set to face subzero conditions as the aptly-named winter storm Hercules overran the northern US and threatened to push into the usually balmy Deep South. In Minnesota the temperature was predicted to reach -31F (-35C) but meteorologists warned that accompanying wind chill could make it feel twice as cold, bringing frostbite to exposed skin within minutes. Eleven people have died in weather-related incidents in the last week, including a 71-year-old woman with Alzheimer's who wandered away from her home in upstate New York and was found frozen to death in woods only 100 yards away. American football fans were layering up for what is expected to be the coldest game in recorded history when the Green Bay Packers take the field against the San Francisco 49ers in -51F (-46C) conditions on Sunday."