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"Wind chill warnings have been issued in 25 states from Montana to New York and Florida. In the northern Plains, wind chills of 45 to 55 below zero are ongoing. In Florida, wind chills tonight are expected between 0 and 10 degrees.Schools were closed across Ohio and officials warned people to stay inside if possible Monday as the state braced for a blast of dangerously cold weather.Ohio State University, University of Cincinnati, Miami University and the University of Toledo also closed Monday as temperatures in the state were expected to be the coldest in more than two decades. Ohio State, the state's largest university, hasn't shut down because of the cold since 1994.That was the last time Cincinnati saw wind chills this cold as well, in the range of -30 to -40 degrees.The arctic blast was coming as Toledo and northwest Ohio were digging out from a storm that dumped more than 8 inches of snow on the area Sunday and early Monday.Snow emergencies were in effect in Hancock, Defiance, Fulton, Henry, Lucas and Wood counties, with school and most local activities canceled for Monday. Much of the rest of the state also got several inches of snow overnight, making for a messy commute for those who braved the weather and went to work.Forecasters say low temperatures around zero - with possible wind chill factors of 40 below zero - are possible through Wednesday. The entire state was under a rare wind-chill warning, which means frostbite could affect exposed skin within 10 minutes outside.And the highs aren't expected to get out of single digits.Lorna West, a 43-year-old student and consultant from Columbus, said she doesn't believe residents of Ohio and other areas unaccustomed to brutal temperatures and winds are ready for what's coming.West, a Chicago native, said thermal underwear, lots of layers and \"Eskimo coats\" with zipped hoods to block the wind were the norm growing up. \"And don't go out if you don't have to.\"\"If they're right about this, this is going to be serious,\" she said. \"Your car can freeze, your locks can freeze. If you're a native Ohioan and you're not used to this kind of thing, and if the weatherman is right, you're in for a rude awakening.\"Many flights at the state's major airports were delayed or canceled. Most of the arrivals and departures from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport were scratched Monday morning.The Ohio Emergency Management Agency warned people to stay inside Monday if possible, check on their neighbors and make sure fireplaces and other heating sources are properly vented.The cold snap is due to a \"polar vortex\" that descended into much of the U.S. on Monday, bringing dangerous cold that could break decades-old records and wind chill warnings stretching from Montana to Alabama.KentuckyWind chills plunged well below zero across Kentucky on Monday as a blast of arctic air forced schools to close and kept people from venturing outside into the biting cold.Temperatures dropped into the low single digits across the state early Monday, and wind chills plummeted to 19 below at Louisville and minus-14 in Lexington, Bowling Green and Lexington. The bitter cold snap had officials warning people to stay inside.\"With wind chills at this level, frost bite can set in at a little more than a half hour,\" said Mike Callahan with the National Weather Service in Louisville.Forecasters said temperatures Monday would stay mostly in the single digits, with wind chills hovering well below zero.Kentuckians who ventured out endured difficulties caused by the cold.In Shelbyville, Billy Lewis drove his wife to work, but just getting there was a challenge since their sport-utility vehicle was parked in their driveway overnight.\"The doors were frozen and we had a flat tire this morning,\" Lewis said while stopping at a convenience store.He poured hot water around the doors to pry them open, and pumped up the flat tire.\"I'm always ready for winter,\" he said. \"Anything can happen when it gets this cold.\"As soon as he dropped her off, he said, he was going home to get warm.Bobby Dunston stopped to buy a steaming cup of coffee before heading to his job cleaning horse stalls at a Shelby County farm. He was wearing an extra layer of clothing.\"It's going to be cold,\" he said.Traffic on major roads in Louisville proved thin Monday morning, with ice-laden cars and trucks making their way across salt- and brine-strewn roads in downtown and along Interstates 64 and 65. A few braved the cold to walk their dogs or head for a bus stop, but the streets didn't show the normal signs of heavy Monday morning traffic.Schools were closed across the state as many students got a one-day extension to their holiday vacations.Winds chills on Monday were expected to plunge as low as minus-24 in Louisville, minus-22 in Lexington, minus-21 in Paducah, minus-19 in Bowling Green and minus-15 in Jackson.\"The arctic cold is just going to settle in,\" Callahan said.Light snow fell across the state, and officials warned of possible slick spots on roads.The bitter cold forced farmers to take extra precautions for their livestock.David Nickell of Smithland, in the western part of the state, was doing just that. Nickell, an instructor at West Kentucky Community and Technical College, took extra hay into the field, moved his animals out of the wind, filled fuel cans and loaded up on batteries.At Barkley Regional Airport in Paducah, United Airlines canceled all flights in and out of the western Kentucky airport for Monday and Tuesday because of the freezing temperatures.Organizations including churches and the Salvation Army planned to open warming centers in some cities. Lexington Mayor Jim Gray called on residents to check on neighbors, the elderly, and bring pets inside. Lexington was opening warming stations and 24-hour emergency shelters.Once the arctic air moves in, it was expected to stay for a day before warming up slightly heading into Tuesday, when daytime temperatures will rise into the teens, forecasters said.\"It'll be a better form of unpleasant (Tuesday),\" said weather service meteorologist Dan Spaeth in Paducah. \"If we hadn't had Monday before it, we'd think it was pretty darn unpleasant.\"IndianaIndiana authorities had a simple message Monday for anyone considering braving the state's icy roads, biting winds and subzero temperatures: Stay home.Many of the state's schools, businesses and municipal offices remained closed with much of the state blanketed in about a foot of snow that fell Sunday and with wind chills through Tuesday that could reach a deadly 45 degrees below zero, according to the National Weather Service.\"I know the roads look clear, the sun's out and it all looks nice,\" Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said Monday. \"But it's still minus 40 in wind chill - deadly temperatures. So we want to be very, very careful.\"Emergency officials warned people to stay off the roads, many of which were rendered impassable because of the snow and wind. At least one person has died from a crash on snow-covered roads.Highway officials have closed two major highways in northwestern Indiana - Interstate 65 between Lafayette and Merrillville and I-80/94 from the Illinois state line to Michigan City - along with many state and local roads.Indiana Department of Homeland spokesman John Erickson said National Guard crews were contributing highway and roadside assistance and helping emergency medical services reach patients.Most counties in the northern two-thirds of the state issued warnings asking everyone except emergency workers to avoid travel.Erickson said even some emergency vehicles were having trouble in the snow.\"If you have to be out today, use common sense,\" he said.Temperatures reached 14 below zero in Indianapolis with a wind chill of minus-39 Monday morning. It reached 12 below zero in Fort Wayne and Terre Haute - and even 2 below zero in Evansville in far southern Indiana.Indiana's major electricity providers reported more than 40,000 power outages around the state after Sunday's snowstorm, which packed 35 mph wind gusts and caused many tree limbs to fall on power lines.Indianapolis had the most outages, with power still out for nearly 27,000 homes and businesses as of Monday morning. A couple thousand outages each were reported in the Terre Haute area and central Indiana's Tipton County.Ann Gregson, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross' Indianapolis region, said that more than 100 people - and likely considerable more - had checked in to one of the state's 14 Red Cross shelters.She said a shelter in Lafayette received 60 people who began arriving in the early morning hours of Monday after being driven from their homes by power outages.Much of the power was out Monday morning in the small Tipton County community of Sharpsville, about 30 miles north of Indianapolis. Tipton County emergency management director Chuck Bell told WTHR-TV that most of the town's residents decided to stay home but that some were helped to shelters.Indianapolis' highways and major streets were largely empty of traffic Monday morning after Ballard issued the city's first red level travel warning since a blizzard paralyzed the city in January 1978.Ballard said he was lifting that ban at noon Monday, but wants schools and businesses in the city to remain closed through Tuesday until the worst of the severe cold passes.State police said 41-year-old Christopher Hutchings of Richmond died Sunday in a crash at U.S. 40 and Indiana 3 in eastern Indiana's Henry County. His car was traveling too fast on the snow-covered road and slid into the path of a pickup truck, police said."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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