DANGEROUSLY cold temperatures across a wide swath of the US have been blamed for at last nine deaths so far, with records toppling and more freezing weather on the way.

The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories and freeze warnings covering a vast area from South Texas to Canada and from Montana through New England.

The Washington Post reported that more severe weather is on its way, with a huge storm set to batter the east coast from Maine to as far south as Georgia.
“By Thursday, the exploding storm will, in many ways, resemble a winter hurricane, battering easternmost New England with potentially damaging winds in addition to blinding snow,” the Post reported.

“Forecasters are expecting the storm to become a so-called ‘bomb cyclone’ because its pressure is predicted to fall so fast, an indicator of explosive strengthening. The storm could rank as the most intense over the waters east of New England in decades at this time of year.

INDIANA AND ILLINOIS FREEZE

Indianapolis early on Tuesday tied a record low of minus 24 degrees Celsius for January 2 set in 1887, leading Indianapolis Public Schools to cancel classes. And the northwest Indiana city of Lafayette got down to minus 28 degrees Celsius, shattering the previous record of minus 21 degrees Celsius for the date, set in 1979, the National Weather Service said.

“The temperatures are certainly extreme, but we’ve seen colder,” said Joseph Nield, a meteorologist in Indianapolis, noting that the all-time low temperature in Indiana was minus 38 degrees Celsius in 1994.

Nevertheless, the cold is nothing to trifle with, forecasters warned. With Chicago-area wind chills expected between minus 37 and minus 29 degrees Celsius, forecasters warned of frost bite and hypothermia risks and urged residents to take precautions, including dressing in layers, wearing a hat and gloves, covering exposed skin and bringing pets indoors.

FROZEN SHARKS ARE WASHING ASHORE

So cold are conditions in the north east of the US that several frozen sharks have been recovered from beaches in the New England area.

The New York Times reports the gills on the sharks freeze up quickly and it takes no time at all for a shark to succumb to freezing conditions.

Pictures shared on social media by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy show a number of thresher sharks stranded “due to cold shock” in the Massachusetts area.

One of the sharks was 14-feet long.

TEMPERATURES PLUNGE IN THE SOUTH

Atlanta hospitals were seeing a surge in emergency room visits for hypothermia and other ailments as temperatures plunge well below freezing.

“We have a group of patients who are coming in off the street who are looking to escape the cold — we have dozens and dozens of those every day,” said Dr Brooks Moore, associate medical director in the emergency department of Grady Health System, which operates Georgia’s largest hospital in Atlanta.

Warming shelters were opened across the South as freeze watches and warnings blanketed the region, including hard freeze warnings for much of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Plunging overnight temperatures in Texas brought rare snow flurries as far south as Austin, and accidents racked up on icy roads across the state.

In the central Texas city of Abilene, the local police chief said more than three dozen vehicle crashes were reported in 24 hours.

NINE DEATHS REPORTED SO FAR

The cold is blamed in at least nine deaths in the past week.

Police in St. Louis said a homeless man found dead inside a rubbish bin on Monday evening apparently froze to death as the temperature dropped to minus 21 degrees Celsius.

Sheriff’s officials in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, said a 27-year-old woman whose body was found on Monday evening on the shore of Lake Winnebago likely died of exposure.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office said two men whose bodies were found on Sunday showed signs of hypothermia.

Police believe the cold weather also may have been a factor in the death of a man in Bismarck, North Dakota, whose body was found near a river.