From Slate-- Photos from Chicago "In the Polar Vortex"

Artic Landscapes From the Polar Vortex

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Beautiful photos.

By Lisa Larson-Walker

A cold front like no other in recent memory has converged upon the Midwest and Eastern regions of the U.S. The polar vortex has brought record low temperatures not experienced in a generation, freezing pots of boiling water instantaneously and solidifying the Lake Michigan shoreline into a glacial mass. As the following photographs attest, life still goes on despite the cold, however anonymously under many layers of clothing and frost.

A person walks past a snow covered bus shelter in downtown Chicago, Jan. 6.

Photo by Jim Young/Reuters

The Chicago skyline is seen beyond the arctic sea smoke rising off Lake Michigan in Chicago, Jan. 6.

Photo by Jim Young/Reuters

A woman walks through a gust of blowing snow in downtown Chicago, Jan. 6.

Photo by Jim Young/Reuters

Commuters make a sub-zero trek to offices in Chicago's Loop, Jan. 6.

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

A man is silhouetted against the frigid fog rising off Lake Michigan in Chicago, Jan. 6.

Photo by Jim Young/Reuters

A worker spreads sand near an exterior waterfall that froze overnight at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., Jan. 7.

Photo by Gary Cameron/Reuters

Arctic sea smoke rising off Lake Michigan in Chicago, Jan. 6.

Photo by Jim Young/Reuters

Commuters make their way across the Chicago River, Jan. 6.

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Mist rises from Lake Michigan as temperatures in Chicago dipped to the lowest temperatures in two decades on Jan. 6.

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Ice crystals form on the inside of a window in Minneapolis, Jan. 6.

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Left: Taxis wait outside at Kennedy International Airport in New York, Jan. 6. More than 3,000 flights within, into, or out of the United States were canceled on Monday. Right: Passengers wait on an 'L' platform for the train to arrive in below zero temperatures on January 7, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. Many trains were delayed on the system because doors on the trains kept freezing open.

Photos by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images, Scott Olson/Getty Images

A pedestrian braves the cold on Jan. 7 in New York City.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images