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US polar vortex 2019: Incredible NASA satellite photos show ARCTIC chaos over US Midwest


Freezing temperature and Arctic conditions in the Midwest have claimed at least 12 lives as thermometers plunge to “life-threatening” levels. The so-called polar vortex has affected the lives of some 90 million Americans forced to suffer temperatures as low as -52 Celsius (-62F). Multiple states of emergency have been declared across the Midwest as schools, roads, airports and businesses shut down to endure the . Weather forecasters are now warning the cold snap will continue through Thursday, January 31.

According to ’s Earth Observatory office, the culprit behind the killer weather is a front of low pressure and cold air sweeping in from the Arctic circle.

Forecasters said this vortex will drove temperatures down to their lowest since at least 1994.

A similar cold snap in 2014 cost the US an estimated £3.8billion ($5billion), according to CBS News.

A NASA satellite photo taken on January 27 shows snow stretching across Michigan and the US Great Lakes.

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The startling photo, snapped by NASA’s Terra satellite, shows cloud-streets and lake-effect snow stretching across the scene.

The US space agency said: “Desperately cold weather is now gripping the Midwest and Northern Plains of the United States, as well as interior Canada. The culprit is a familiar one: the polar vortex.

“A large area of low pressure and extremely cold air usually swirls over the Arctic, with strong counter-clockwise winds that trap the cold around the Pole.

“But disturbances in the jet stream and the intrusion of warmer mid-latitude air masses can disturb this polar vortex and make it unstable, sending Arctic air south into middle latitudes.”

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The US National Weather Service (NWS) revealed today the chilling vortex is showing signs of dissipating in the Midwest.

The “life-threatening” conditions will likely disappear by Friday, February 1, as the front of woe pressure drifts into Canada.

The NWS said: “By Friday, temperatures in the Upper Midwest will finally rebound to well above zero – with high temperatures making it into the teens and low 20s.

“By Saturday, high temperatures will be in the 30s and even low 40s.

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“Additionally, the central Plains will see temperatures in the lows 60s, which is nearly 20 to 25 degrees above normal.”

Snow coverage downwind of the Great Lakes will wind down straying today and Friday.

The national weather forecaster expects some light snow showers along the central Appalachian mountain range and the Mid-Atlantic.

Showers will follow into the lower Mississippi Valley, the Gulf of Mexico and possibly the Gulf Coast by Saturday.



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