The deepest of deep freezes yet this winter in Minnesota hung around for a second day Tuesday, with the temperature plunging to as low as minus-36 in Embarrass this morning.
The frigid temperatures and dangerous windchill readings are allowing some students a modest extension of their long Martin Luther King holiday weekend.
Dozens of school districts around the state -- but not in the Twin Cities area -- pushed back the start of classes two hours to give Mother Nature a chance to warm things a bit. Those districts include Albany and Alexandria in western Minnesota, Bemidji and Cass Lake-Bena in the north, and Holdingford, Little Falls and New London-Spicer in central Minnesota.
Several districts ringing Duluth called off school altogether. They include Hermantown, Proctor, Cloquet and Carlton. Just before sunrise, the temperature was 20-below zero in Duluth, with a windchill reading of minus-43, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Among the high school sporting events in the Duluth area scrapped for Tuesday night: boys hockey at Duluth Denfeld, and boys and girls basketball games at Duluth East.
To the north and west of Duluth, the mercury has fallen to 36-below in Embarrass.
In the Twin Cities, the NWS reported a low of minus-11 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at about 7 a.m. Tuesday's high will struggle into positive territory by afternoon to 1 degree.
Monday's high in the Twin Cities of minus-2 came at 12:20 a.m., marking the first time in four years that a day's warmest reading remained in negative territory.
