The polar vortex brings its bitter cold to the Southern U.S.

Author of the article:

Associated Press

Hannah Fingerhut And Ben Finley

Published Jan 07, 2025  •  4 minute read

A pedestrian crosses the street as snow falls during a winter storm in Bethesda, Maryland on Jan. 6, 2025. Photo by PEDRO UGARTE /AFP via Getty Images

NORFOLK, Va. — The plunging polar vortex brought subfreezing temperatures Tuesday to some of the southernmost points of the U.S., threatening to dump snow on parts of Texas and Oklahoma in the coming days and contributing to a power outage in Virginia’s capital that made the water unsafe to drink.

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The arctic blast that descended on much of the U.S. east of the Rockies over the weekend has caused hundreds of car accidents, thousands of flight cancellations and delays, and forced school closures in some states. A cold weather advisory was issued Tuesday for the Gulf Coast. And the low temperature in El Paso, which sits on Texas’ border with Mexico, was 31 degrees (minus 0.5 Celsius), with an expected wind chill factor ranging from 0 to 15 degrees (minus 18 to minus 9 Celsius) early Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Road crews in the Kansas City area, which has received about 11 inches (28 centimetres) of snow in recent days, have struggled to keep up with clearing the area’s streets and highways.

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“I don’t know what super powers some think snow removal teams have but 2 days of straight snow & ice isn’t going to disappear overnight,” the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, wrote Monday in a Facebook post.

In frigid northern Virginia, Carol Grayson wished she had a metal shovel — not her plastic one — as she tried to carve a path for her beagle, Rudy, sheltie, Emma, on Monday.

The great grandmother, who declined to give her age, said shoveling through nearly frozen snow that went up to her knees was “like climbing Mount Everest.” Her neighbourhood in Alexandria was once populated with teenagers who’d offer to help. But they’ve all grown up and moved away.

“We’re not used to it here, and we’re just not prepared,” Grayson said.

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As points in the Midwest, north and east dug their way out of snow and ice on Tuesday, communities in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas were preparing for their own helping. A low-pressure system was expected to form as soon as Wednesday near South Texas, which could bring several inches of snow to the Dallas area and the lower Mississippi Valley, the weather service said.

“As we go through the next few days, we’re still going to be seeing those colder-than-normal temperatures,” said Peter Mullinax, a weather service meteorologist based in College Park, Maryland. “We’re going to see areas of snow and ice start to take shape across northern Texas, southern Oklahoma as we get into Thursday morning.”

Some of it could be “pretty disruptive,” he said.

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The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes plunges south into the U.S., Europe and Asia. Some experts say such cold air outbreaks are happening more frequently, paradoxically, because of a warming world.

Transportation has been tricky

The eastern two-thirds of the U.S. were dealt another day of colder-than-usual temperatures. And the snow and ice in the central Plains through the Ohio Valley into the Atlantic is likely to linger for a few days, Mullinax said, which will mean opportunities for constant refreezing and black ice. That could create treacherous road conditions.

A Kentucky truck stop was jammed Monday with big rigs forced off an icy and snow-covered Interstate 75 just outside Cincinnati. Michael Taylor, a long-haul driver from Los Angeles carrying a load of rugs to Georgia, said he saw numerous cars and trucks stuck in ditches and was dealing with icy windshield wipers before he pulled off the interstate.

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“It was too dangerous. I didn’t want to kill myself or anyone else,” he said.

Hundreds of car accidents were reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky, where a state trooper was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after his patrol car was hit.

Virginia State Police responded to at least 430 crashes on Sunday and Monday, including one that was fatal. Police said other weather-related fatal accidents occurred Sunday near Charleston, West Virginia, and Monday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Kansas had two deadly crashes over the weekend.

More than 1,000 flights into or out of the U.S. were already delayed Tuesday morning, according to tracking platform FlightAware. More than 2,300 flights were canceled Monday and at least 9,100 more were delayed nationwide.

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Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport reported that about 58% of arrivals and 70% of departures had been canceled. The airport announced early Tuesday that it had reopened all runways after closing them Monday evening so airport crews could focus on snow removal and prevent refreezing on the airfield.

Tens of thousands are without power

Many were in the dark as temperatures plunged. About 200,000 customers were without power Tuesday across Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois and Missouri, according to electric utility tracking website PowerOutage.us.

In Virginia’s capital city, Richmond, a weather-related power outage caused a temporary malfunction in the water system, officials said Monday. The city issued a boil-water advisory to its more than 200,000 residents and promised to get the system back online as quickly as possible. The advisory could be lifted as soon as Wednesday, Mayor Danny Avula said at a news conference.

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The malfunction forced Virginia’s Capitol and General Assembly buildings to close Tuesday, a day before the start of the legislative session.

G. Paul Nardo, clerk for the House of Delegates, told lawmakers and staff in a Tuesday email to vacate the buildings or find somewhere else to go if they were headed to the capital.

“The water pressure has gone kaput,” he wrote.

— Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press reporters Bruce Schreiner in Shelbyville, Kentucky; Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, Julie Walker in New York; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

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