CHICAGO (AP) -  Authorities are investigating the death of a man found frozen in his backyard in a Milwaukee suburb.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office responded to the home in Cudahy on Thursday, the same day temperatures plunged to record lows in several Midwestern cities. No details about the man or what preceded his death were immediately released.

An autopsy is scheduled.

At least 16 deaths are now blamed on the bitterly cold weather that has held much of the region in a historic deep freeze. The frigid conditions are starting to ease, and a dramatic swing of as much as 80 degrees was expected within days in parts of the region.