Video: An Arctic air system being called a polar vortex is stretching from Canada to the southern U.S., causing a mass of record-breaking and life-threatening cold air into every s that except Hawaii. Eric Sorensen reports.
City officials regularly advise drivers to stay off the roads during terrible weather, but the mayor of Indianapolis went so far as to make it illegal.
The U.S. Midwest was pounded by a severe winter storm on Sunday and that weather system was followed by what’s being called a polar vortex, stretching all the way down to the U.S. Gulf Coast states.
On Sunday and Monday morning Indianapolis was under a “red” travel advisory, meaning all travel — with the exception of emergencies — was illegal.
According to ABC News, it was the first time such an advisory had been issued since 1978.
READ MORE: Arctic cold engulfs the country
Mayor Greg Ballard eased the travel advisory as of 12 p.m. ET on Monday, but only slightly.
The noon change to an “orange” travel advisory, meaning the city is requesting essential travel only.
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It’s not just a matter of the 28 centimetres of heavy, wet snow that fell over the weekend needing to be cleared, but the bitter air hitting much of the country meant salt wasn’t effectively melting ice on the roads. Plowing and sunlight helped improve conditions somewhat.
READ MORE: Five red-hot businesses thriving amid Canada’s deep freeze
Ballard urged businesses to remain closed on Monday and on Tuesday as the polar vortex covering much of the U.S. and Canada has sent temperatures plummeting to levels not seen in two decades. He also asked schools to remain closed on Tuesday.
“We’re asking businesses to take volunteer employees only on Tuesday, if it all possible,” he said, adding he didn’t want people put into a dangerous situation by being out in the frigid, “deadly” temperatures when they don’t have to be.
“It bothers me that people are saying “Gee, I have to do this or I’m going to get fired,” Ballard said in response to reports people who have said their jobs have been threatened for not showing up to work.
“Those bosses need to rethink that. It’s -40. Ten minutes and you could be dead if you’re not properly clothed.”
He also said there were no tickets issued during the red travel advisory and even though people could be ticketed while an essential travel-only advisory was in place, he said that probably wouldn’t happen.
But it wasn’t just road travel that became treacherous in the Midwest and across the U.S.
Travellers delayed on their way home from holiday vacations are being met with yet more flight cancellations.
As of 2 p.m. ET, more than 7,300 inbound and outbound U.S. flights had been delayed or cancelled, but that’s an improvement from 24 hours earlier: almost 3,500 flights were cancelled on Sunday and a further 10,000 were delayed.
No airport has been affected more than Chicago’s O’Hare International, where more than 1,600 arrivals and departures have been “proactively” cancelled because of winter weather conditions and extreme cold, the Chicago Department of Aviation said.
O’Hare, the world’s sixth busiest airport and the second busiest in the U.S., had almost of 30 centimetres of snow on Sunday and was still trying to deal with the aftermath of Sunday’s storm.
READ MORE: Flash freeze, blizzard, wind chill warnings issued across southern Ontario
Canadian airlines are also dealing with the weather woes.
Air Canada has warned U.S.-bound and domestic passengers of cancellations and delays, but the airline could not give the specific number of flights affected.
Flights are also expected to be affected on Tuesday.
As of 2 p.m., cancellations or delays were affecting air travel to/from Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York (JFK, Newark and La Guardia), Philadelphia and Washington, among others.
Porter Airlines reported it had cancelled “more than two dozen flights,” but didn’t provide a specific number of delayed flights.
“This is primarily a carryover from last night’s freezing rain in Toronto and runway conditions this morning,” spokesperson Brad Cicero said in an email to Global News. He said there have also been weather-related delays in and out of Boston and Newark.
WestJet did not respond in time for publication.
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