the 2014 north american polar vortex was a weather system that caused extremely cold weather through canada and the united states. freezing temperatures went all the way down to nashville, tennessee. several cities broke records: chicago o'hare international airport set a record on 6 january with a temperature of , beating the record in 1884 and 1988. there were also power failures throughout canada and united states. one in newfoundland on 5 january took out the power of 190,000 customers. almost 24,000 people lost electricity across missouri, illinois and indiana.