Blizzards and cold temperatures pound nation

Minneapolis - arctic air to extend its control Wednesday below zero temperatures, stretching from Montana to northern New England and frost nipping the Gulf Coast.

It was so cold Wednesday in the northern state of Minnesota - 38 below zero at International Falls, with a chill wind at night is estimated at 50 below - that some ski areas are closed for the day.

Schools from Iowa to Ohio, opened late, so children should not be in the coldest part of the morning. In some schools closed.

The cold wave also depressed in the Northeast, dramatically reduces the temperature in New York in a single digits below zero - Tuesday, after reading in 30 years, National Weather Service said. Thermometers read 8 below at Massena, on the St. Lawrence River , a wind chill of minus 25 degrees.

Public transport in Albany, New York, collided with a chill 6 degrees, with brisk winds that feel like 15 below zero, but some people claimed they did not mind.

"I'm cold weather fan," said Geoff Plant Colonie, NY, as he sat reading a newspaper in Albany cafe. "I wanted to see a cold winter." Later, he said, he planned to go for a walk "to get some sun."

Not far from the shore of Lake Superior, Ironwood, Mich., Fell to 25 below zero around midnight, and then warmed up to 8 hours the next morning, only 8 below, the National Weather Service said.

Further south, the morning temperature was only 20 years from Texas to Georgia and along the Gulf Coast weather service reported only a low of 28 Mobile, Ala.

Cold was accompanied by ice and snow that glazed the pavement, and was the cause of numerous traffic accidents on Tuesday from Minnesota to Indiana.

Very cold was the cause of at least one person died on Tuesday. 51-year-old man died of cold in northern Wisconsin after wandering from his Hayward home.

Cold stores towing and auto repair companies are engaged through Wisconsin, as well as public works crews, with frozen pipes and water mains.

"We are working mainly in the 24 hours a day with broken chains," said Dave Goldapp with the Milwaukee Public Works.

As cold air pushed to the east of the country, there was a slight improvement on the northern Plains, where Grand Forks, ND, posted a low of 24 below zero, which is Tuesday at a record low of 37 below. In Minnesota, International Falls fell to minus 40 on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the wind chill hit 58 below zero in northern Minnesota town of Hallock, but Mark Johnson said that as soon as temperatures reach a certain point, hail, is irrelevant. For example, he said, 38 degrees below zero, not much different from the 24 below.

"We kind of acclimated here in this country," he said. "Every year, in winter, he was going to get to this point. Just as if he does not remain as a whole month, you can do everyday to get through it."