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Stay Home! Arctic Blast Puts Nation in Deep Freeze

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A blast of Arctic air is causing temperatures to plunge across the eastern two-thirds of the country this week.

The Plains and Great Lakes saw the cold wave come through Monday. And on Tuesday, a second even colder air mass is expected to move into the Plains, Midwest, and East Coast.

With extreme cold and blinding snow resulting in deadly conditions, much of the nation is being told to stay home.

"It was just the visibility that was really bad," Fulton, New York, resident Lavinia Bradley said. "You had to go by the markers. You could barely see the exit signs."

It's the coldest air of the season, sending wind chills plummeting and triggering concerns about frostbite.

Temperatures are expected to plunge into the teens as far south as Atlanta.

In Wisconsin, at least two people are dead from exposure to the cold, and more than 30 school districts are closed.

"We have to take each one of these days independently because we do have the students' safety in mind, first and foremost. So if the temperatures are such that we need to cancel school, then we're going to cancel school," Bob Tess, chief finance and business services officer at the Wausau School District, said.

In Minneapolis, it feels like minus-30 degrees. At that temperature, frostbite can occur in as little as 10 minutes.

"There really is no time to spare. If you aren't dressed appropriately and the temp is low and there's a huge amount of wind, your body temp will drop. You could get frostbite, hypothermia," Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Dr. Rahul Khare warned.

Chicago firefighters are battling frozen fire hydrants with crews out in force to keep them clear. The wind chill there is making it feel like 20 degrees below zero.

Meanwhile, up to two feet of snow is expected from the Great Lakes to western New York and there's no relief in sight.

Forecasters say temperatures will remain well below normal for the rest of the week.

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About The Author

Caitlin Burke Headshot
Caitlin
Burke

Caitlin Burke serves as National Security Correspondent and a general assignment reporter for CBN News. She has also hosted the CBN News original podcast, The Daily Rundown. Some of Caitlin’s recent stories have focused on the national security threat posed by China, America’s military strength, and vulnerabilities in the U.S. power grid. She joined CBN News in July 2010, and over the course of her career, she has had the opportunity to cover stories both domestically and abroad. Caitlin began her news career working as a production assistant in Richmond, Virginia, for the NBC affiliate WWBT