Parts of Siberia and the South Pole will be warmer than Chicago this week

CHICAGO – Want to escape Chicago’s brutal cold snap? Try the South Pole.

That’s just one of many very cold locations that will be warmer than Chicago this week.

By Wednesday morning, temperatures had descended to 23 degrees below zero at O’hare International Airport, with a wind chill of 52 below.

The city has started to shut down, with everything from museums to Chicago Public Schools closing and everything from Amtrak to the U.S. Postal Service halting service, and Chicagoans are preparing for the bitter cold still to come. Temperatures might not recover to zero until late Thursday, creating a possible 45-hour stretch of below-zero temperatures.

The lowest temperature ever recorded in Chicago was minus 27 on Jan. 20, 1985.

As “Chiberia” earns its nickname again, here are some spots that will be balmier than Chicago, according to Accuweather.com:

There was alow of minus 8 degrees Wednesday at the South Pole, a few degrees above what suburban areas could see.

Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the U.S., saw a low of about 9 below zero Tuesday night.

Greenland’s capital Nuuk had a high of about 18 degrees Wednesday, almost 35 degrees warmer than Chicago’s Wednesday highs of 10 to 15 below.

In Canada, Saguenay had a Wednesday high of 14 degrees and Regina will had a high of 4.

The Siberian city Novosibirsk saw daytime temperatures hovering around zero degrees, which will continue over the next few days.