And winter came. While there was unusually warm weather in Russia, the United States faced all the delights of the Siberian winter. The latter, in its turn, may make the Americans dig deep into their pockets. According to experts, the cold spell will cost the U.S. Treasury about $5 billion. The country’s GDP is ticking down (about 0.2% YoY); the vagaries of the weather made the transportation difficult and forced people to stay home. Evan Gold, the senior vice president at Planalytics, a business weather intelligence company in suburban Philadelphia, noted that despite the fact that the bone-chilling cold is rather evanescent, it will cost the economy a lot due to the huge amount of the people affected. “A similar situation in 2010 lasted a week, with back-to-back storms with snow and ice. We calculated that cost $25 billion to $30 billion. But that one lingered. This one is just very cold, so it should be a two- or three-day event,” said Gold. Such an abnormal natural phenomenon was dubbed ‘Polar Vortex’. The meteorologists expect the weather to warm up early next week, then it will be possible to assess the damage of the deep froze. Many stores had to close; the ones, which did not fold up, are complaining about the low customer inflow. A few of them succeeded in making some money by selling out winter goods. However, the businessmen are going to experience other difficulties. The hefty bills are going to hit about 200 million U.S. citizens. The transportation companies are suffering losses as well since lots of tourists cannot get home and stuck in the airports and railway stations due to the overcrowded hotels. But there is still good news: even though the colder-than-usual weather reduces the GDP by 0.2%, the economy will be able to gain ground in early Q1.
