The most extreme arctic blasts, blamed on a weather pattern known as the polar vortex, were said to have affected¹ nearly 190 million people.

 

In Kentucky, an escaped prisoner turned himself in to get out of the cold.

 

Some parts of the Midwest hit -26C (-14F), as low as the Antarctic coast in winter, and much colder than the inside of a domestic freezer.

 

Temperature records were shattered in states across the US, including Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Michigan, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

 

It was -17C (1F) in the small town of Hell, Michigan, prompting online jokes that the weather was so bad even hell had frozen over.

 

 

But it was Embarrass, Minnesota, that experienced the lowest temperature in the nation on Tuesday: -37C (-35F).

 

That was colder than readings recently recorded on the Red Planet by the Mars Rover.

 

A video of a meteorologist tossing a pot of boiling water into the air in Wisconsin, to demonstrate how it immediately turns to snow, quickly went viral on the internet and was widely imitated.

 

The extreme weather resulted in the usual travel chaos² - nearly 2,700 US flights were cancelled on Tuesday.

 

More than 500 rail passengers on their way to Chicago were marooned³ overnight into Tuesday morning in northern Illinois on three Amtrak passenger trains after drifting snow and ice covered the tracks.

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