Giant ice storm freezes half the US: Millions battle snowfall and terrible conditions as temperatures hit MINUS 40

• Storm dumped 2ft of snow in the Rockie Mountains and in Yellowstone National Park
• Storm will stretch from the southern Plains as far as Texas, through the Ohio Valley and even contribute to snow in Maine
• Record low temperatures could continue in Northern and Southern California, with temps dipping into the 30s in LA this weekend

By Associated Press

A huge ice storm has descended across the U.S. today leaving much of the country battling treacherous conditions.
Winter storm Cleon delivered heavy snow to the Rockies and upper midwest. From Thursday into Friday, the southern Plains and the Ohio Valley will be the worst hit by snow and ice.
Icy blasts are making road conditions treacherous for drivers across western regions of the U.S.
According to the National Weather Service in Riverton, Wyoming, temperatures dipped as low as 37 degrees below zero on Wednesday.
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Digging out: Ethel O'Leary is dwarfed by snowbanks as she helps clear the sidewalk in front of her house after her nephew went over it with the snowblower

Snowed in: Scott Asperheim, of Duluth, runs his snowblower to clear the sidewalk around his home from several feet of snow Thursday

Winter wonderland: Wayne Neally runs a snowblower to clear his driveway while Deanne Ferguson does her clearing the old-fashioned way with a large snow scoop, right

Occupants of this overturned vehicle escaped serious injury in Norfolk, Arkansas after they skidded in icy road conditions

Cesar Velasco, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, walks by his jackknifed truck on the side of highway I-25 on Thursday as a storm system swept through the state

A vehicle sits in ditch in Baxter County, Arkansas after skidding from the road in treacherous conditions

Traffics is backed up on highway I-25 after a winter storm system swept through La Bajada, New Mexico

Ice and snow: As the arctic blast that's helping power winter storm Cleon pushes south, it's promising conditions both slippery and snow

As the jet stream hunkered to the south on Wednesday, it promised a week of temperatures that could dip to minus 20 or worse in the northern midsection of the country, forcing much of the rest of the nation to deal with unexpectedly cool temperatures.

BREAKING THE ICE: STORM BRINGS RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Denver: A record low of minus 13 on Wednesday trumped the old record of 5 degrees below zero set in 2008. Thursday's low of 14 degrees below zero was one degree shy of tying the daily record
Ely, Nevada: A temperature of minus 17 on Wednesday crushed the old record of 5 degrees below zero
Great Falls, Montana: Record low of 23 degrees below zero on Wednesday topped the old record of 22 below
Casper, Wyoming: On Wednesday, a record low of minus 22 beat the old record of 11 degrees below in 1972
Medford, Oregon: The state felt a record low of minus 18 on Wednesday

In Minnesota, the cold has forced Salvation Army bell ringers inside and canceled holiday parties, while dense, cold air sunk into Rocky Mountain valleys and kept some lower elevations freezing in the West.
The dip in the jet stream is allowing Arctic air to plunge deeper into the United States.
To add to the cold weather trouble, AccuWeather senior forecaster Paul Walker said a new storm will likely develop in New Mexico and west Texas on Thursday and head east, bringing ice and potentially power outages.
Extreme cold is nothing new in the Rockies, with temperatures regularly dropping each winter to minus 20 or minus 25 degrees annually.
The difference this year is how long the cold snap is expected to last.
National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Bernhardt said the last extended cold period in Montana he could recall was in the winter of 1996.
Low temperatures in Denver were expected to drop just below zero through Friday but remain below 20 through the middle of next week.

 

Major ice storm heading for South and Midwest

A pedestrian walks down the street as strong, gusty winds whip across a snowdrift overhang near the south entrance of the state Capitol in Bismarck

An 18-wheeler sits awaiting help after sliding off the road as traffic rumbles by in New Mexico

Whiteout conditions; Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Blain Mollett investigates a car the went off the road along on U.S. Highway 14-A west of Powell, Wyoming on Wednesday

Dangerous conditions: Poudre Fire Authority fire fighters check for survivors in a van that had rolled into a ditch along Carpenter Road south of Fort Collins, Colorado on Wednesday

Blown away: Ground crews working for the State of Montana blow snow from the sidewalks around the Original Governor's Mansion Wednesday in Helena

Just the half of it: A Crow Wing County snowplow operator clears snow near Merrifield, Minnesota, a state especially hard hit by Cleon's icy wrath

On Tuesday, traffic crawls along Main Street in Sheridan, Wyoming after the town received 11 inches of snow. Cleon's wintry punch is now creeping south and promising a chilly weekend to even more of the country

Knee deep: A man shovels his car out of snow during in Duluth, Minnesota on Wednesday

The storm dumped several inches of snow in Denver, and parts of Colorado's mountains could get up to 3 feet by the end of the day.
Heavy overnight snow canceled a men's World Cup downhill training in Beaver Creek because the skiers need a clean, slick surface to practice on.
Snowfall totals could also approach 3 feet in northeastern Minnesota, where the weather has contributed to hundreds of traffic accidents around the state, including at least five fatal crashes since Monday. Two other fatal crashes in Montana and North Dakota were blamed on the weather.

At the Denver Zoo, which was closed due to the weather, the polar bears were playing and lying in the snow and the Mongolian camels seemed friskier than normal, spokeswoman Tiffany Barnhart said.
But many other animals remained in the indoor section of their quarters, close to their hay beds. Workers kept the lions occupied with toys and videos of African predators.

Bill Earley cleans off his driveway in Sioux Falls, South Dakota with the hose spray turning to ice as it hits the air

Snowy stretch: The belt of snow at the edge of Cleon will blanket areas of the U.S. stretching from Maine all the way to North Texas by Friday

Dangerous snowfall: The storm's snow dump felled trees like this one in Duluth, Minnesota. The unrelenting storm has spread about 2 feet of snow in northeastern Minnesota continued for a third day Wednesday

Record chills: A homeless woman tries to ward off the cold near the Fresno Rescue Mission on Wednesday. California's Central Valley has seen record low temperatures as a result of Cleon's fury

Frigid: A man walks in Laramie, Wyoming Wednesday, a low lying area that could see temperatures dip to 29 below Wednesday night and early Thursday

Spun out: A driver makes their way down Sixth Street in downtown Pueblo, Colorado on Wednesday

Fire and ice: A Colorado Springs firefighter covered in ice, looks on as other members of his crew work to extinguish a fire in a vacant home in North Union Boulevard in Colorado on Wednesday

Streets and roads in the shadow of Casper Mountain on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, in Casper, Wyoming

Cleo's wrath: A woman braces against the cold and blowing snow on Denver's 16th Street Mall on Wednesday

‘It's a snow day for them too,’ she said.
The risk of frostbite is high for people doing every day activities, like waiting for a bus, unless they're bundled up. Tyler Elick wore a hat and gloves as he played with his dog, Coconut, in a parking lot downtown.
‘It's fun, but my cheeks are frozen, so I may be slurring my words,’ he said.
In a switch from the norm, lower elevation valleys could see lower temperatures than the mountains in the West.
‘It actually gets a little warmer as you go higher up in the mountains because cold air tends to be dense and heavy, so it may cool faster up in the mountains but then it just flows downhill and pools in the valley,’ said Richard Emanuel, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cheyenne.'

Let it snow! Riverside Elementary students and teachers walk to the waiting school buses on Wednesday in Brainerd, Minnesota Schools were open as the storm reached into the second day in Central Minnesota

Nightfall: As night falls, rush hour begins in seven degree weather in downtown Denver Wednesday. The last two days have seen serious snowfall in Colorado and the next two days will see the precipitation move South and East

Digging in: Josh Scharf retrieves a shopping cart on a cold afternoon with single-digit temperatures Wednesday in Rapid City, South Dakota

Brittany Katalenas braves snowy conditions on her walk to work in Boulder, Colorado as sub-zero temperatures set in

Laramie, the home of the University of Wyoming, sits in a valley between two mountain ranges and could see temperatures dip to minus 29 Wednesday night and early Thursday.
The record low for December 5 at Laramie is 33 below zero, set in 1972.
In Montana, the cold spot will be the northern city of Havre, with low temperatures expected to dip as low as minus 30 between Thursday and Saturday. The city isn't expected to get warmer than minus 6 degrees during that period.
In California, a hard freeze warning was in effect for much of the state's inland agricultural breadbasket, sending farmers scrambling to protect crops.
Homeowners covered landscaping with towels and blankets to keep off the worst of the cold.

'We haven't seen a cold snap this early in the year that has lasted so long for 30 or 40 years,' said Luke Robinson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Missoula, Montana.
The freezing weather also complicated a search in Idaho for a small plane carrying five people that vanished Sunday in rugged mountains after its pilot reported engine trouble.

Sam Flaifel, left, Dave Warner, center, and Pat Riestenberg, clear snow from 400 cars in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota today. A wintry storm pushing through the Rockies and Midwest is bringing bitterly cold temperatures and treacherous driving conditions

Snow falls on Monday afternoon in Shoreview, Minnesota as a storm hit 24 states

In Denver, temperatures plummeted 40 degrees into the single digits in a matter of hours overnight as a bitter cold air mass descended from Canada. About 5 inches of snow fell in the city overnight, causing roadways to ice up.
A handful of flights were canceled at Denver International Airport, mostly headed to mountain regional airports, airport spokeswoman Julie Smith said.
The heaviest snow in Colorado was falling in the southwest part of the state as icy, snow packed roads and 'zero to low visibility,' closed at least one mountain pass, the Colorado Department of Transportation said in an alert.
In Minnesota, heavy wet snow was continuing and nearly 200 crashes were reported across the state by the Minnesota State Patrol on Wednesday, although none involved serious injuries.

A tanker truck is tended to by firefighters after sliding off the snowy highway near mile marker 48 on Interstate 90 in Piedmont, South Dakota

A Department of Transportation plow clears snow from the northbound lane of Highway 85 near Jay Em, Wyoming

More than 15 inches of snow had fallen in Duluth, Minnesota by Wednesday morning, forcing school closings and dozens of crashes but city offices were open. The storm was expected to bring another foot of snow or more.
The three days of the storm could reach into the top 10 recorded in Duluth, but was not expected to approach a record 36.8 inches that fell in a 1991 storm, the weather service said.
Not everyone was put off by the snow.
'This puts us in good shape for the rest of the season,' said Renee Mattson, executive director at Spirit Mountain, a Duluth ski area that opened in mid November, two weeks earlier than normal.
The snow really helps with the base and, 'having all of this natural snowfall puts everyone in the mind for winter sports,' Mattson added. 'If you see a brown backyard you assume there are no winter sports and the whole area is covered by white.'

Melina and Gary Hall take a walk in the falling snow with their ten-year-old dog Roxie along the Old Santa Fe Trail in New Mexico on Thursday

Fresh snow surrounds the McPolin barn on the outskirts of Park City, Utah with 16 inches of snow expected at higher elevations