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• "Those are the actual temperatures, not wind chill temperatures. It's going to stay cold," Aleksa said.
• Some mountain areas reported up to a foot of snow. The Colorado Department of Transportation said U.S. Highway 550 was closed between Silverton and Ouray in western Colorado to prevent avalanches on Red Mountain Pass.
• In Denver, homeless people lined up in 9-below-zero temperatures before dawn, waiting for the St. Francis Center day shelter to open so they could get off the streets.
• The National Weather Service said Denver's airport tied a record low Thursday of minus 15 set in 1972, but the airport was also closer to Denver 41 years ago.
• DAKOTAS
• Some organizations in the Dakotas canceled holiday events, and one city decided it was even too cold for ice skating.
• A "Christmas at the Zoo" fundraising event in the North Dakota city of Minot and "Parade of Lights" events in the South Dakota cities of Yankton and Sturgis were among those called off. Many schools announced late starts, and officials in Rapid City, S.D., shut down an outdoor ice rink.
• The National Weather Service posted advisories for the two states saying wind chills could make the temperature feel as low as 40 degrees below zero into the weekend.
• ILLINOIS
• Icy, cold weather has caused numerous traffic accidents in southern Illinois, and dozens of schools and day care centers say they will be closed Friday.
• More than a dozen counties south of Interstate 70 in southern Illinois were under winter storm warnings from the National Weather Service. Parts of Illinois could see up to 8 inches of snow.
• The electric utility Ameren Illinois says it has trucks ready to respond to outages.
• INDIANA
• The Indiana Department of Transportation was preparing for freezing rain, sleet, ice and snow to hit parts of the state Thursday night and Friday.
• The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for much of southern and central Indiana.
• MICHIGAN
• Temperatures fell sharply across Michigan on Thursday. Readings reached a spring-like 63 degrees in parts of southern Michigan and the mid-40s in the Upper Peninsula early Thursday before the frigid air pushed into the state.
• The National Weather Service said that by mid-afternoon, the day's lows stood at

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