16 January,2009 10:35 AM IST | | Agencies
In some places, the temperature was the lowest it'd been in years, including Chicago, where it was 11 below zero at O'Hare International Airport Thursday morning. It was the coldest daytime temperature in a more than a decade.
In Pollock, South Dakota, which dropped to a record-setting 47 below zero, Todd Moser, who works at a gas station, said it took about 10 minutes before the gas pumps started working.
"It just hurts to breathe out there," said Moser, adding that he could only stand it for about five minutes. "After a while your face really just starts to hurt and you've just really got to get back in."
