Jan 5, 2014 | worldnewsdepartment1
A plane skids on a JFK Airport runway as cold air sucked from the Arctic sends temperatures in the north and east US plummeting.
Windchills of nearly -50C (-60F) are threatening to turn states in the north and northwest US into an icy deep freeze.
A phenomenon described as a polar vortex is set to suck super-chilled air from the Arctic into North and South Dakota, the Great Lakes states and New England, sending temperatures plunging.
Washington DC has already seen its coldest temperatures for 20 years and several states in the Midwest have recorded their lowest mercury readings for more than a decade.
Icy weather is feared to have been a factor that led to a Delta Airways flight skidding off the runway at JFK Airport on Sunday.
None of the flight's 35 passengers were injured and the aircraft was safely towed to a gate.
The busy New York airport suspended operations for about two hours due to slick runways.
In Chicago, about 1,200 flights have been cancelled at the city's O'Hare and Midway international airports.
Weather Bell meteorologist Ryan Maue described current weather conditions as a once in a generation event.
"If you're under 40 (years old), you've not seen this stuff before," he said.
With much of the northeast of the country already under thick snow and well below zero, a newly emerging weather system is threatening to cause further misery.
The 'polar vortex' is an anti-clockwise rotating pool of cold, dense air that forms close to the North Pole, but typically hangs over Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment