Transcript for Winter storm causes thousands of canceled flights at Chicago airport
downright dangerous cold about to sweep in. 34 states. And we’re talking about wind chills more than 50 below zero in some places. A winter storm is already hammering the midwest, heading east. Freezing rain in North Dakota. This car clipping a sheriff’s vehicle on the side of the road, spinning multiple times. Whiteout conditions causing a line of accidents on I-90, from Erie county, Pennsylvania, and right behind it tonight, look at this. By Wednesday morning, wind chills for some 20 million Americans will be brutally cold. 51 below zero in Minneapolis there. And look at that. 47 below in Chicago. Tonight, from the warning over how little time you should spend outside to the pipes in your home. How to keep them from freezing. Alex Perez leading us off. Reporter: Tonight, a powerful winter storm making travel treacherous across the upper midwest. In Minnesota, brigades of snowplows raging more than 130 crashes in ten hours. Wisconsin residents digging out from more than half a foot of snow. Kind of a nightmare for us parents. Between school cancellations and trying to get things shoveled and getting to work on time. Reporter: More than 1,100 flights already cancelled at Chicago airports. Come on over here. Reporter: Chicago police racing to rescue a man from the icy waters of lake Michigan Sunday. Pull yourself up. We got you! Reporter: He had jumped in to save his dog, but became trapped. Give me your hand. Reporter: Those officers pulling him to safety. Both lucky to be alive. Wind chuls below zero this week for millions from the northern plains to the northeast. Some spots will feel like 65 below zero. The wind pierces right through. Reporter: The arctic cold, tough on your home, too. Experts say you should move any furniture blocking vents to help better distribute the heat, leave the faucet dripping to prevent water from freezing in pipes and check your furnace filter. A clogged filter could cause your furnace to shut down. In Atlanta, as thousands pour in for the super bowl, they’re bracing for snow and single digit temperatures. We’ve seen before when we aren’t proactive, you have black ice, you get wrecks on the connector. Reporter: Schools and businesses already closing. And David, you can see the power of that deep freeze. Parts of lake Michigan behind me here already frozen. This cold is no joke. With that 65 below zero feel like temperature, it could take as little as five minutes for frostbite to begin on exposed skin. David? Important warning. All right, Alex Perez, thank you. As I mentioned, these temperatures sweep in and then they last for some time. Let’s get right to Sam champion, tracking it all for us tonight. Hey, Sam. Reporter: Hey, good even egg, David. You’re right. We’ve got three days before this arctic blast. Let’s show everyone what’s happening with this front. The front drops all the way in the deep south. You’ve seen the great Lakes. Now look at the south. We’ve got a good, solid hit of snow, and that’s why southern states like Alabama have issued a state of emergency. Tr’s a freezing mix of rain and snow. When that snow moves into mid-atlantic or the northeast, that’s not so much a problem. The problem is the brutal cold that comes in behind it. And those numbers you’ve been talking about. 41 below, 50 below. Those are the wind chills. David, I got to tell you this. Thursday morning, the real temperature in Chicago will be close within two degrees of their coldest temperature ever that’s actually the coldest day for the northeast, as well. Wow. Sam champion with us tonight. Sam, thank you.
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