What happens during a polar vortex?

CLEVELAND — The temperature outside was so cold that your fingers, toes, nose and cheeks felt like they were burning. A harsh Arctic cold wave brought record-breaking temperatures to the United States during late January 2019. The city of Chicago experienced temperatures that dropped to –23 degrees Fahrenheit! That was colder than some areas of Antarctica at the time. The Midwest experienced an epic deep freeze which damaged railroad tracks, closed thousands of schools and put 90 million people at risk from dangerous wind chill temperatures below -50 degrees Fahrenheit. The extreme weather caused the deaths of many people from hypothermia and traffic accidents from dangerous, icy road conditions. Meteorologists identified something called the Polar Vortex as the main cause of the situati