Brutally cold extremely dangerous below zero wind chills paralyzing major cities

The 31st Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival opened on 5th January in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang in northeastern China. The event is recognized as the largest of its kind in the world. The Festival officially lasts for one month but with winter temperatures in the city averaging a bone-chilling minus 17C many of the sculptures remain in place for considerably longer than that. The sculptures are formed either from compacted snow or from blocks of ice that are hauled out of the nearby Songhua River.

Purified water is also used frozen into blocks of clear ice. Many of the sculptures are illuminated to add another dimension to the displays during the long hours of darkness at this time of the year. The Festival began in 1963 but it was only held sporadically because of the upheaval during the Cultural Revolution. It became a regular event in 1985.

In the US because of the strong cyclone and frost Niagara Falls has frozen writes the news portal RIA. In the last weeks in the northeast of the country, the temperature fell below 20 degrees and snow storms became frequent. Tourists, who come to see the waterfall note that it was a hike on the ice palace and photographed with an ice wonder. It is worth noting that the cold weather will remain in the region for about 2 weeks and during this period the waterfall will retain its stillness.

Brutally cold and extremely dangerous below zero wind chills are paralyzing major Midwest cities. Chicago is forecast to reach an actual temperature of minus 26 degrees Wednesday night just one degree away from the city's all-time coldest temperature which was set in 1994. And soon freezing temperatures will take over the Northeast.

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In 2001 the Harbin Ice Festival was merged with the Heilongjiang International Ski Festival to become the event we know today. In 2007 a sculpture celebrating the work of a revered Canadian doctor Norman Bethune was recognized. The world’s largest ice sculpture. Featuring both Niagara Falls and the Bering Strait it measured 250m in length and 8.5m in height. A total of 13,000 cubic meters of snow was used in its construction.

Photographer Arseniy Kotov is dedicated to documenting the changes in Russian life and architecture since the fall of the USSR a commitment that brought him to the coldest European city last February. Located about 110 miles from the Arctic Ocean Vorkuta is a small mining town that once held one of the largest and most grueling forced labor camps during Stalin’s reign. Often plagued by temperatures as low as 45 degrees Celsius.

During Kotov’s visit, he toured various housing complexes built for workers many of which were abandoned when the mines closed. One building in particular, though is evidence of how desertion continues to unsettle. The once-thriving city is an ongoing problem that Kotov captured in a stunning series. His photographs frame the dilapidated five-story structure that’s entirely subsumed by feet-long icicles and mounded snow.

Kotov tells Colossal that often buildings are transformed into similarly chilling caves when pipes burst due to lack of maintenance, leading to splashes of hot water subsequent high humidity and then ice growth on every surface. At the time of his visit one family remained in the Severniy district building, which was still connected to the central heating system that runs through Russian cities making it easier to pass through some of the walkways thanks to warmth from the radiators.