By TAMMY WEBBER and KERRY LESTER
Allan Umscheid, owner of Yards By Al in Lawrence, Kan, feels the bitter wind and catches drifting snow on his face as he runs a snow blower early Sunday morning, Jan. 5, 2014. Several inches of snow fell on the Lawrence area overnight and wind chill values are forecast to be as low as minus 25 to minus 32 Sunday night through Monday morning. (AP Photo/The Journal-World, Mike Yoder) MANDATORY CREDIT
Snow hammers St. Louis
A Crestwood motorist tries to get his car moving along Watson Road in St. Louis as heavy snow falls on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. Snow-covered roads, high winds and ice were creating dangerous driving conditions from Missouri to Delaware on Sunday ahead of a “polar vortex” that’ll bring below-zero temperatures not seen in years to much of the nation in the coming days, likely setting records. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Robert Cohen) EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT
Deep Freeze North Dakota
With temperatures at about 22 below zero with a -50 windchill, it was hard to find the beauty in the brutal weather in Bismarck, N.D., Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. Sundogs, a ring of light visible around the sun or moon when light is refracted through ice crystals in the atmosphere, are quite beautiful along Highway 83 north of Bismark ND. (AP Photo/The Bismarck Tribune, Brian Peterson)
Deep Freeze Missouri
Srirupa Chatterjee holds her hood as she crosses a street Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in St. Louis. Heavy snow continues to fall Sunday with forecasters calling for up to a foot (30 centimeters) in eastern Missouri and parts of central Illinois followed by bitter cold. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Deep Freeze Missouri
A garden gnome sits up to its chin in snow Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in St. Louis. Snow that began in parts of Missouri Saturday night picked up intensity after dawn Sunday with several inches of snow on the ground by midmorning and more on the way. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
49ers Packers Football
Fans sit in their seats at Lambeau Field before an NFL wild-card playoff football game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)
Deep Freeze
Travelers deal with long waits and flight cancellations at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. Temperatures not seen in years are likely to set records in the coming days across the Midwest, Northeast and South, creating dangerous travel conditions and prompting church and school closures. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Deep Freeze Missouri
Few cars drive on Interstate 44 in Fenton, Mo., Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. Snow-covered roads and high winds were creating dangerous driving conditions from Missouri to Delaware on Sunday ahead of a “polar vortex” that’ll bring below-zero temperatures not seen in years to much of the nation in the coming days, likely setting records. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, J.B. Forbes)
Deep Freeze Illinois
Motorists drive along a snow covered northbound Interstate-94 in Chicago on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. Sunday night temperatures will drastically drop to about minus 20 degrees. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Deep Freeze Indiana
A motorist walks back to his car after helping a motorist stuck in a snow drift, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in Zionsville, Ind. Snow that began in parts of Indiana Saturday night picked up intensity after dawn Sunday with several inches of snow on the ground by midmorning and more on the way. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Deep Freeze Minn
Three brothers, from left, Connor, Trevor and Austin Bartz built this 16 foot high snow shark in the front yard of their New Brighton, Minn. home, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014. It took them around 95 hours of work and they gathered the snow from houses in their neighborhood. (AP Photo/Star Tribune, Glen Stubbe) ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS OUT, MINNEAPOLIS-AREA TV OUT, MAGS OUT
DEEP FREEZE
Graphic shows the extreme cold temperatures across the U.S. and a thermometer indicator to explain just how cold this weather will be. ; 2c x 4 inches; 96.3 mm x 101 mm;
Deep Freeze SD
Despite subzero wind chill temperatures, from left, Josh Anderson, 12, Jake Anderson, 14, and Marshal McGovern, 13, all of Sioux Falls, S.D., set up a portable fish house before doing some ice fishing at Family Park in Sioux Falls on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. Monday’s temperatures in Sioux Falls are expected to see a low of minus 20 degrees, an expected high of minus 13 degrees and wind chills possibly dipping below minus 40, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Philip Schumacher. According to National Weather Service records, the last time Sioux Falls saw wind chills approaching minus 50 was in 1997. (AP Photo/Argus Leader, Joe Ahlquist)
Deep Freeze SD
The waterfalls at Falls Park sit frozen with just a trickle of water flowing underneath, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in Sioux Falls, S.D. The city and surrounding areas were under a wind chill advisory Sunday afternoon with wind chills levels expected to dip as low as 55 degrees below zero. (AP Photo/Dirk Lammers)
49ers Packers Football
Green Bay Packers fans gather around the fire as they tailgate before an NFL wild-card playoff football game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
49ers Packers Football
A Green Bay Packers fan looks through a tent as fans tailgate before an NFL wild-card playoff football game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Deep Freeze
A woman checks her cell phone as she waits at the check-in line in Terminal 3 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. Illinois residents are digging out of more snow and preparing for bitterly cold temperatures. Sunday night temperatures are predicted to drop drastically, to about minus 20 degrees. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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CHICAGO (AP) — Icy, snow-covered roads and high winds made travel treacherous Sunday from the Dakotas and Michigan to Missouri as much of the nation braced for the next winter wallop: a dangerous cold that could break records.
A whirlpool of frigid, dense air known as a “polar vortex” was expected to suppress temperatures in more than half of the continental U.S. starting into Monday and Tuesday, with wind chill warnings stretching from Montana to Alabama.
It was 5 degrees at kickoff Sunday afternoon inside sold-out Lambeau Field for a playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers, one of the coldest ever played.
“We suited up, we brought all the snowboarding gear we use … and added to it,” said 49ers fan Jeff Giardinelli of Fresno, Calif. “Without the wind, which isn’t here yet, we’re good. When it gets windy, we’ll be ready for it.”
The forecast is extreme: 25 below zero in Fargo, N.D., minus 31 in International Falls, Minn., and minus 15 in Indianapolis and Chicago. Wind chills — what it feels like outside when high winds are factored into the temperature — could drop into the minus 50s and 60s. Northeastern Montana was warned of wind chills up to 59 below zero.
“It’s just a dangerous cold,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Butch Dye in Missouri.
Several Midwestern states received up to a foot of new snow Sunday. Five to 9 inches fell in the Chicago area by Sunday afternoon, St. Louis area had about a foot of snow and northern Indiana had at least 8 inches. Central Illinois braced for 8 to 10 inches, and southern Michigan could see up to 15 inches.
Officials closed several Illinois roadways because of drifting snow and warned residents to stay inside. Roads in the Midwest were particularly dangerous, and officials in Missouri said it was too cold for rock salt to be very effective.
Authorities also urged people to check on elderly and disabled relatives and neighbors.
In Chicago, temperatures were expected to bottom out around minus 15 overnight, likely setting a daily record, National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Fenelon said. Earlier Sunday, temperatures sank to minus 20 and colder in northern Minnesota and Grand Forks, N.D.
It hasn’t been this cold for almost two decades in many parts of the country. Frostbite and hypothermia can set in quickly at 15 to 30 below zero.
Lorna West, a 43-year-old student and consultant from Columbus, Ohio, said she doesn’t believe people unaccustomed to such weather are ready for what’s coming.
A Chicago native, she said thermal underwear, lots of layers and “Eskimo coats” with zipped hoods to block the wind were the norm growing up.
“And don’t go out if you don’t have to,” she said.
In Michigan, residents jammed stores to stock up on supplies.
“I made my husband go grocery shopping last night,” said Kim Tarnopol, 46, of the Detroit suburb of Huntington Woods. Tarnopol was picking up cold medicine Sunday for her daughter Emma at a CVS in nearby Berkley, Mich.
Travel problems started early Sunday. In New York City, a plane from Toronto landed at Kennedy International Airport and then slid into snow on a taxiway. No one was hurt, though the airport temporarily suspended operations because of icy runways.
About 1,200 flights had been cancelled Sunday at O’Hare and Midway international airports in Chicago, aviation officials said, and there also were cancellations at Logan International Airport in Boston and Tennessee’s Memphis and Nashville international airports.
School was called off Monday for the entire state of Minnesota, as well as cities and districts in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana and Iowa, among others. Chicago officials said school would be in session for the nation’s third-largest district, though absences would be excused.
Southern states are bracing for possible record temperatures, too, with single-digit highs expected Tuesday in Georgia and Alabama.
Temperatures are expected to dip into the 30s in parts of Florida on Tuesday. But Florida Citrus Mutual spokesman Andrew Meadows said it must be at 28 degrees or lower four hours straight for fruit to freeze badly.
In western Kentucky, which could see 1 to 3 inches of snow, Smithland farmer David Nickell moved extra hay to the field and his animals out of the wind. He’d also stocked up on batteries and gas and loaded up the pantry and freezer. The 2009 ice storm that paralyzed the state and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people is fresh in his mind.
“We are hoping this isn’t going to be more than a few days of cold weather, but we did learn with the ice storm that you can wake up in the 19th century and you need to be able to not only survive, but be comfortable and continue with your basic day-to-day functions,” Nickell said.
In Mt. Prospect, Ill., Steve White spent part of Sunday raking his roof with a specially made pole to prevent icicles as he prepares for a trip to Costa Rica in the coming days. He also installed a thermostat that directly faces a window, so a neighbor can check to make sure his furnace is working.
“I’m just glad I’m here to take care of it,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Julie Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; Tom Coyne in Indianapolis; Jim Salter in St. Louis; Brett Barrouquere in Louisville, Ky.; Verena Dobnik in New York City; David N. Goodman in Berkeley, Mich.; and Christine Amario in Miami contributed to this report.
