The big thaw begins: FROZEN BODIES found in snow as temperatures begin to rise after brutal 'polar vortex' leaves 21 dead and 11,000 flights grounded
- More than 20 people have died across country since Sunday, including seven in Illinois and six in Indiana
- The body of a 42-year-old man was found by a postal worker in an Ohio driveway, while a homeless man was found 'frozen solid' behind a Maryland business
- All 50 states saw freezing temperatures at some point on Tuesday, including Hawaii, where it was 18F (-8C) atop Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano
- Winds across the U.S. are set to calm today and the Northeast will feel balmy by tomorrow
- Temperatures will climb in the Midwest and the East - which were colder than Antarctica on Tuesday - but they are still expected to remain below freezing until later this week
- The deep freeze could cost the U.S. economy as much as $5 billion
By Daily Mail Reporter, 9 January 2014
The arctic blast that has shattered temperature records and taken the lives of more than 20 people across the U.S. will ease its grip on much of the country today, providing relief for millions scrambling to stay warm.
But as the weather begins to warm, grisly discoveries have been made of bodies frozen in the snow. In Akron, Ohio, a postal worker discovered the body of a man in a driveway, while in Maryland a homeless man was found frozen to death behind a business in Morningside.
The tragedies come a day after all 50 U.S. states endured freezing temperatures, and areas of the Midwest and East were colder than much of Antarctica. Even Hawaii experienced the chill as temperatures plummeted to 18F (-8C) atop Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano.
Just yesterday, Atlanta endured a record low of 6 degrees, causing fountains to freeze over and forcing southerners to dig out rarely-worn winter hats and coats, but today the southern city is predicted to see sunny skies and temperatures of 42 degrees.
In the Midwest and East, where brutal polar air has lingered over the past few days, temperatures climbed but were still expected to be below freezing.
On Thursday, highs in the 20s or 30s in much of the Great Lakes and Northeast will seem downright balmy compared to earlier in the week.
Thawing out: Ice collects on the Delaware River in view of Philadelphia. Temperatures across the city remain well below freezing but are rising nonetheless after a blast of arctic air set cold-weather records Wednesday
Still cold! A man walks past a car partially covered in ice in Baltimore on Wednesday where temperatures remain below freezing
A motorist drives by the ice forming on a cliff along Route 61 in Palo Alto, Pennsylvania as temperatures rise but remain below zero
The frozen mist from Niagara Falls coats the landscape around Prospect Point at Niagara Falls State Park, Tuesday
Canadian Coast Guard ice breaker Pierre-Radisson clears the ice flow under the Quebec bridge on the St-Lawrence River in front of Quebec City, Wednesday, January 8, 2014. Extreme cold and strong winds are hitting parts of North America
It's warming up! A forecast for Wednesday shows temperatures across much of the U.S. will creep above freezing, providing relief after a brutal start to the week
Forecast: A map shows Wednesday's expected highs - a stark difference to Tuesday, when areas of the Midwest and East were colder than much of Antarctica
More than 20 people have lost their lives in the deep freeze, including seven people in Illinois, and six in Indiana.
At least five people died after collapsing while shoveling snow. In White Lake Township, a 72-year-old was found dead with a shovel in his hand in his backyard after apparently trying to dig a tractor out of a snow bank. His family had not heard from him for three days.
In Akron, Ohio on Tuesday, a postal worker found the body of a 42-year-old man in a driveway while delivering mail. The worker alerted neighbors, who called the police. The man, who displayed no signs or trauma or foul play, was pronounced dead at the scene.
In Morningside, Maryland, the body of a homeless man was found behind a business on Tuesday morning.
'He was frozen solid,' a witness said. 'Someone could've done something. If it was a puppy or a kitten, someone would've done something for it.'
A number of employees said they knew the victim and had been regularly checking on him, but had last seen him outside a business on Monday. His body was found the next day between a wall and a fence.
Getting warmer: The temperatures inflicted by the polar vortex are on their way out, as temperatures rise throughout the week
Even warmer: By Friday, temperatures in the northern states will be creeping over 30 degrees
Warm weekend: By the weekend, temperatures will be far balmier, with sunshine forecast for much of the country
Still cold! Icicles hang from a cable on a breakwater at 31st Street Beach in Chicago, Illinois, where temperatures will reach the late 30s by the weekend
Chill: Ice in the Mississippi River flows past the Gateway Arch on Tuesday in St. Louis as the end of the cold snap nears
A semi tractor-trailer slid off the side of Indiana 42 in far eastern Vigo County, Indiana Tuesday afternoon
Icy stroll: Ben Leffers makes his way to work on cross country skis down a snow covered street in Indianapolis, where 12 inches of snow fell
Struggle: Ice hangs on a fire hydrant and hose as Ann Arbor, Michigan firefighters battled a fire in extreme conditions
In Missouri on Monday, a one-year-old boy was killed when the car he was riding in struck a snow plow, and a 20-year-old woman was killed in a separate crash after her car slid on ice and into the path of a tractor-trailer. A 58-year-old man was also found dead of hypothermia on a frozen lake in Ohio after going out for a walk and failing to return home.
More than 41,000 customers were without power Tuesday evening, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, with at least 10,000 of these in Indiana.
Utility crews worked to restore service as temperatures plunged into the negative teens, but officials warned that some customers could be in the cold and dark for days as the weather starts to warm.
In Indianapolis, Timolyn Johnson-Fitzgerald returned to her home after spending the night in a shelter with her three children because they lost power to their apartment. The water lines were working, but much of the food she bought in preparation for the storm was ruined from a combination of thawing and then freezing during the outage.
'All my eggs were cracked, the cheese and milk was frozen. And the ice cream had melted and then refroze. It's crazy, but we're just glad to be back home,' she said.
Experts have predicted that the deep freeze could cost the U.S. economy as much as $5 billion as people were unable to travel to work, shops or restaurants, others were unable to fly on vacation or business trips, and many had to crank up the heat to endure the chill.
'We think that the problem will be short-lived, but we estimate it will cost about $5 billion because of the sheer size of the population affected - about 200 million people in the eastern two-thirds of the country,' Evan Gold, senior vice president at business weather intelligence company Planalytics told said
Oil refiners were also hit, with Marathon Petroleum Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp both experiencing cold-related outages as homeowners turned up the heat.
The big chill started in the Midwest over the weekend, caused by a kink in the 'polar vortex,' the strong winds that circulate around the North Pole. By Tuesday, the icy air covered about half the country, and records were shattered like icicles up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
Making the most of it: Twelve-year-old Joe Cantania, from St. Joseph, Michigan, joins sledders as they take advantage of a school snow day
Frozen over: An image taken by the Today show reveals Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota completely frozen over on Wednesday morning
A tugboat makes its way up the icy waters of the Mississippi River on Tuesday, in St. Louis. Tuesday was the worst cold snap in nearly two decades for Missouri
The mercury plummeted into the single digits and teens from Boston and New York to Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville and Little Rock - places where many people don't know the first thing about extreme cold. Temperatures in the Midwest and East were colder than much of Antarctica.
Schools were shut across the country - although many planned to open again today - and 11,000 flights were canceled over four days. On Wednesday, around 1,000 had already been grounded, according to
FlightStats.
'I didn't think the South got this cold,' said Marty Williams, a homeless man, originally from Chicago, who took shelter at a church in Atlanta, where it hit a record low of 6 degrees. 'That was the main reason for me to come down from up North, from the cold, to get away from all that stuff.'
Even Hell froze over - that is, a small town in Michigan, where shops closed up and snowed in neighbors helped each other stay warm.
It was 1 degree in Reading, Pennsylvania, and 2 in Trenton, New Jersey. New York City plummeted to 4 degrees; the old record for the date was 6, set in 1896.
'It's brutal out here,' said Spunkiy Jon, who took a break from her sanitation job in New York to smoke a cigarette in the cab of a garbage truck. 'Your fingers freeze off after three minutes, your cheeks feel as if you're going to get windburn, and you work as quick as you can.'
Farther south, Birmingham, Alabama, dipped to a low of 7, four degrees colder than the old mark, set in 1970. Huntsville, Alabama, dropped to 5, Nashville, Tennesse, got down to 2, and Little Rock, Arkansas, fell to 9. Charlotte, North Carolina, reached 6 degrees, breaking the 12-degree record that had stood since 1884.