The United States is plunged into a cold wave that already covers much of the country. Low temperatures, snowfall and icy winds are the protagonists of the American storm, which threatens to increase the damage caused by a powerful winter storm that hit the region last weekend.
The storm has closed schools in numerous cities, in addition to restricting bus service and opening shelters for all those homeless. Additionally, parts of the country have experienced power outages, leaving thousands of people without electricity for days.
Cold temperatures have hit much of the Rocky Mountains and the Midwest, with wind chills below -34.4°C. As for the East Coast, New York and Philadelphia have ended the drought thanks to snowfall.
As for the wind, the National Weather Service has warned of heavy snowfall mixed with freezing rain that could make travel “very difficult or impossible,” so dozens of buses have suspended service for a few days.
The cold snap in the United States has arrived while most of the rest of the world is experiencing warmer weather, a contradiction that is due to climate change, according to scientists.
The Arctic used to warm twice as fast as the rest of the planet, while it is now warming three or four times as fast: "When the Arctic is extraordinarily warm (like it is now), we are more likely to see freezing cold invade places like Texas that are not well equipped to deal with it," says Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Research Center.
