Coldest Temperatures: Ice Protection Systems, Designed Aircraft Flight 11/13

The Thermawing is an electrical ice protection system for general aviation. ThermaWing uses a flexible, electrically conductive, graphite foil attached to a wing’s leading edge. Electric heaters heat the foil and melt the ice.

Damage: The front of the bus is shown entering the Idaho Power corporate headquarters building after it lost control, swerved through a parking lot and hit the building.

The forecast is extreme: 32 below zero in Fargo, North Dakota; minus 21 in Madison, Wisconsin; and 15 below zero in Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Chicago. Wind chills – what it feels like outside when high winds are factored into the temperature – could drop into the minus 50s and 60s. ‘It’s just a dangerous cold,’ said National Weather Service meteorologist Butch Dye in Missouri.
It hasn’t been this cold for almost two decades in many parts of the country. Frostbite and hypothermia can set in quickly at 15 to 30 below zero. Lorna West, a 43-year-old student and consultant from Columbus, Ohio, said she doesn’t believe people unaccustomed to such weather are ready for what’s coming. A Chicago native, she said thermal underwear, lots of layers and ‘Eskimo coats’ with zipped hoods to block the wind were the norm growing up. ‘And don’t go out if you don’t have to,’ she said.