Alaska in deeper-than-usual freeze

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Sprint races for the U.S. Cross Country Ski championships were canceled for a second day as temperatures in Alaska reached 65 degrees below zero.

The protracted cold spell set no records but canceled races last weekend in Anchorage while engineers and architects elsewhere in the city pressed on to finish a huge frozen art installation at Delaney Park.

The project called "Freeze" features two black Cadillacs frozen in ice with their headlights glowing, giant human heads carved from ice and a 99-foot long table with a trough filled with a material meant to mimic oil and water, The Anchorage Daily News reported Monday.

Sunday, the temperature in Anchorage was minus 30 while O'Brien Creek along the Taylor Highway registered minus 65.

The Canadian high pressure system that has locked Alaska in this deeper than usual freeze is expected to move east, letting temperatures to rise slow to above zero by Thursday, said meteorologist Renee Wise.