Chicago Weather Today: Arctic Blast Breaks 4 Winter Records, Extreme Cold To Continue

Marking extreme cold conditions, Chicago weather slipped into unseasonal bitter cold breaking at least four weather records in terms of snowfall, minimum and maximum temperatures in less than 24 hours.

The unexpected cold blast left shivering Chicagoans scrambling for mid-winter outerwear in the cold pursuit.

One of the records in Chicago was Monday’s 3.4 inches snowfall at O'Hare International Airport surpassing the old record of 1.9 inches, recorded during a 1995 storm. The snowiest Nov. 11 broke all records in Chicago as of 12:30 p.m.

Just before midnight on Monday, the temperature plunged to 13 degrees at O'Hare Airport, beating another record low temperature of 15 degrees in the same location in 1950.

On Tuesday morning, temperatures dipped to just 7 degrees, making it the new single-day record low temperature for the city and beat the 8 degrees above zero, set in 1986.

From the Canadian border to South Texas bitter cold temperatures persist. The freeze is moving east and engulfing areas from New England to Florida.

The National Weather Service update of the highest temperature at O'Hare as 17 degrees also smashed the record for a maximum temperature of 28 degrees, set in 1995.

According to reports, many parts of the Midwest and northern New England continue to reel under snow borne by the “arctic air mass."

Record low temperatures expected on Wednesday

The record cold will continue until Thursday, Nov. 14, per the weather channel National Weather Service.

Regarding weather today, NWS said on Wednesday morning, “record low temperatures” are expected throughout the East Coast, the Ohio Valley and the conditions will stretch up to the southern upper Texas coast.

The “record cold” temperatures will expand into the Ohio Valley and southern Plains as the arctic air mass moves south and eastward, per NWS.

The NWS weather forecast also warned of “widespread record cold spreading from the Plains eastward toward the East Coast,” and pushing into two-thirds of the United States.

As a result, nearly 240 million people will face winter weather warnings, and advisories, per CNN.

Casualties from deep freeze conditions

Meanwhile, CBS News reported how the deep freeze is making life hard for millions of Americans. There are reports of casualties. Five people died on icy roads and slicked roads led to a 50 car pileup near Youngstown, Ohio, in which two people were injured critically.

Meanwhile, winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere will be on December 22 this year.

In Buffalo, New York, record snow of 9 inches broke a 77-year old record while many parts of northern Michigan reported more than 30 inches of snowfall.