Extreme Cold Weather Around the World (in Photos)

Kelley Czajka
February 2, 2019
Although its effects have been bleak, the weather produced some stunning images.
Matilda, two (left), and Oliver, three, feed the ducks with their mother in Stalybridge Country Park on January 30th, 2019, in Lancashire, United Kingdom.

This week, a polar vortex brought record-breaking cold temperatures to the Midwest and Northeast United States. European countries also experienced unusually cold, snowy weather. At least 60 people in Eastern and Central Europe and 21 people in the U.S. have died due to the weather this week.

Cold weather events like this have prompted commentary from climate change skeptics, including President Donald Trump. However, as Pacific Standard’s Kate Wheeling reported earlier this week, cold weather events don’t disprove climate change, since they only reflect weather at a specific period in time. Climate reflects weather patterns over time, and 2018 was still the fourth hottest year on record.

Although its effects have been bleak, the weather produced some stunning images.

Ice builds up along the shore of Lake Michigan as temperatures dipped to lows around -20 degrees on January 31st, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois. Businesses and schools closed, Amtrak suspended service into the city, more than a thousand flights were canceled, and mail delivery was suspended as the city coped with record-setting low temperatures.
Ice builds up along the shore of Lake Michigan as temperatures dipped to lows around -20 degrees on January 31st, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois. Businesses and schools closed, Amtrak suspended service into the city, more than a thousand flights were canceled, and mail delivery was suspended as the city coped with record-setting low temperatures.

(Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on January 31st, 2019, is frozen as the region experiences frigid cold temperatures from a polar vortex. A brutal cold wave moved eastward Thursday after bringing temperatures in the U.S. Midwest lower than those in Antarctica, grounding flights, closing schools and businesses, and raising fears of hypothermia.
The Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on January 31st, 2019, is frozen as the region experiences frigid cold temperatures from a polar vortex. A brutal cold wave moved eastward Thursday after bringing temperatures in the U.S. Midwest lower than those in Antarctica, grounding flights, closing schools and businesses, and raising fears of hypothermia. 

(Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

A cyclist rides through the falling snow in the Financial District, January 30th, 2019, in New York City.
A cyclist rides through the falling snow in the Financial District, January 30th, 2019, in New York City. 

(Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Pedestrian pass a snowy meadow way during foggy winter weather with temperatures by the freezing point in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, on January 27th, 2019.
Pedestrian pass a snowy meadow way during foggy winter weather with temperatures by the freezing point in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, on January 27th, 2019.

(Photo: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images)

Frost forms on the back of Galloway cows on February 1st, 2019, in Crainlarich in Scotland. Temperatures plummeted to -15 degrees Celsius on the coldest night of the year.
Frost forms on the back of Galloway cows on February 1st, 2019, in Crainlarich in Scotland. Temperatures plummeted to -15 degrees Celsius on the coldest night of the year.

(Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

A boy puts a bucket for a hat onto the top of a snowman near Hartley Wintney, in Hampshire, 40 miles west of London, on February 1st, 2019. Snowfall and icy conditions were expected Friday to cause travel disruption after temperatures overnight reached as low as -15.4 degrees Celsius. An amber snow warning was issued for an area west of London including parts of Oxfordshire, Hampshire, and Buckinghamshire, after as much as 14 centimeters of snow fell on southwest England.
A boy puts a bucket for a hat onto the top of a snowman near Hartley Wintney, in Hampshire, 40 miles west of London, on February 1st, 2019. Snowfall and icy conditions were expected Friday to cause travel disruption after temperatures overnight reached as low as -15.4 degrees Celsius. An amber snow warning was issued for an area west of London including parts of Oxfordshire, Hampshire, and Buckinghamshire, after as much as 14 centimeters of snow fell on southwest England.

(Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)

Matilda, two (left), and Oliver, three, feed the ducks with their mother in Stalybridge Country Park on January 30th, 2019, in Lancashire, United Kingdom.
Matilda, two (left), and Oliver, three, feed the ducks with their mother in Stalybridge Country Park on January 30th, 2019, in Lancashire, United Kingdom.

(Photo: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

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