CNN : About 140 million Americans are bracing for a polar blast that’s barreling across the country this week, shattering records along the way. Much of the United States will see the coldest temperatures in almost 20 years, the National Weather Service said. Some cities will experience temperatures 30 to 50 degrees below average. To put things in perspective, Monday’s weather in Atlanta and Nashville will be colder than in Anchorage, Alaska. And by Wednesday, nearly half the nation will shudder in temperatures of zero or lower, forecasters said. Here’s what to expect across the country: At this point, even zero degrees sounds balmy. The afternoon “high” temperatures in parts of the Midwest won’t even warm up to zero on Monday, the National Weather Service said. Throw in some fierce winds, and you get winds chills like 55-below-zero in Duluth, Minnesota; 34-below-zero in Chicago; and 24-below-zero in St. Louis. The extreme weather has prompted school cancellations Monday in many major school districts, including St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “It’s not just a snow event, it’s a cold event, and that’s what scares us,” Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said. He urged residents to stay off the streets, especially after nightfall. The Southern Illinois University men’s basketball team, fresh off a game against Illinois State, got trapped on the side of Interstate 57 late Sunday and was prepared to spend the night on the bus, SIU Athletic Director Mario Moccia said. There wasn’t a massive amount of snow on the ground, Moccia said. Rather, it was the blowing snow that made the road virtually impossible to see. The bus driver decided to pull off the road and get out of the way of traffic until visibility improved. But when the driver tried to get back on the road, there was no traction, and the bus was stuck. “They’re just hanging out, they’re watching movies,” Moccia told CNN late Sunday night. He said the bus had plenty of fuel, heat and food, and the team was waiting for a tow truck. Players later tweeted that they were going to spend the night at a nearby church in Tuscola, Illinois. “Somehow this eventful day/night has led to our team sleeping on the floor of a church in Tuscola. What a journey it has been,” Dawson Verhines tweeted. In Embarrass, Minnesota, residents wondered whether they might see their record-cold temperature of 64 below zero, set in 1996, snap like an icicle. “I’ve got a thermometer from the weather service that goes to 100 below,” resident Roland Fowler told CNN affiliate KQDS. “If it gets that cold, I don’t want to be here.” iReport: Watch heavy snow create a beautiful scene in Indiana This isn’t a joke. Hard freeze warnings are in effect across much of the Deep South, from eastern Texas to Florida. That includes virtually all of Louisiana until late Monday morning, the National Weather Service said. The arctic blast threatens to sweep subzero lows as far south as Alabama and plunge much of the Deep South into the single digits. Tennessee declared a state of emergency as it braced for the coldest temperatures since 1994 on Monday.
