Weather

AFP - A record cold snap gripped the American Midwest Friday as temperatures plummeted to lows of minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 degrees Celsius) and officials scrambled to protect the homeless and vulnerable.

AP - More than 150,000 people are surviving on donated food in the flood-battered city of Gonaives and the United Nations says more aid is urgently needed to stave off famine in parts of Haiti four months after ravaging storms.

AP - Weather around the U.S.A.

AP - The unprecedented crowds expected to pack Washington on Tuesday for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama could face some of the coldest weather of the season, the National Weather Service says.

Reuters - A blanket of frigid air moving across part of the United States Wednesday tied up transportation and sparked farmer fears of damage to crops and livestock.

AP - Arctic air extended its grip Wednesday with below-zero temperatures stretching from Montana to northern New England and frost nipping the Gulf Coast. A few ski areas in Vermont and northern Minnesota closed for the day because of the cold — 38 below zero at International Falls, with the wind chill during the night estimated at 50 below.

AP - Weeklong rains have triggered flash floods, landslides and sea surges across the Philippines, leaving at least 11 people dead and another 8 missing, officials said Wednesday.

AP - Rain-soaked Fiji faces at least three more days of storms after its worst flooding in a generation killed 11 people, forced thousands to flee swamped homes and stranded foreign tourists, officials said Wednesday.

AP - Alabama was colder than Alaska, water fountains froze into ice sculptures in South Carolina and Florida shivered through a brush of Arctic air blast that deadened car batteries in the Northeast and prompted scattered Midwest power outages.