“This first surge of arctic air is bringing a dangerous chill, but it is mainly confined to the northern layer of states,” said CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen. “This next round of cold air for the next weekend looks even more intense and will plunge south across much of the plains in Texas and is likely to bring dozens of records.”
Cold air at the beginning of the week will be blocked throughout the northern half of the US, with high temperatures below zero to southern Oklahoma. In northern Minnesota and much of Montana and North Dakota, the hikes will have a hard time exceeding zero.
“Values of thermal sensation well below zero and as low as (minus) 50 degrees can sometimes be felt” from Montana to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, says the WPC.
Thermal sensation alerts are in place early Monday afternoon for more than 5 million people. In some cases, it is so cold that frostbite can occur in just five minutes for those who are not properly dressed.
In Minneapolis, the high temperature on Sunday reached just minus 3 degrees. The last time the high temperature was that cold was more than two years ago, in January 2019. Temperatures there fall again for half the week, before dropping again to around zero this weekend.
Fargo, North Dakota, is another city that hasn’t witnessed this kind of cold in years. Yesterday’s high was minus 8. It hasn’t been so cold since 2019, when the high was just 10 below. The highs are not expected to be as low as last weekend, but will hover around the zero degree mark this week.
Meanwhile, in the southern states, temperatures will remain above average and, in some cases, up to 20 degrees above the normal temperature for this time of year until Wednesday or Thursday.
But that will change as the week progresses.
Cold air will hit all continental US states
The cold air will gradually expand to the south. Over the weekend, all Lower 48 states are expected to experience below average temperatures. The only area that may still be on the warmer side of normal is South Florida.
A very slow moving cold front across the southern plains will serve as the border between high temperatures in the 1930s and 40s in northern Texas and 70s and 80s in central and southern Texas until midweek.
On Wednesday, Dallas is forecast to rise in the mid-1940s, while Austin is expected to be in the mid-70s. That’s about 30 degrees of temperature difference in just over 320 kilometers.
The second half of this week will have maximum temperatures below zero in the northern plains. Adolescents and 20-year-olds are expected in the interior of the Northwest, passing through the central plains, Midwest and in the interior of the Northeast, with the 40s and 50s expected in the South and Southeast.
In some cases, these high temperatures can break cold records.
Low temperatures will be even lower, with all contiguous states in the US except Florida, expected to fall below zero.
In the next seven days, 40 million people can experience sub-zero temperatures.
During the Valentine’s Day weekend, another blast of dangerously cold air must arrive.
The colder air than normal may be in the south-central United States.
“Some areas in the plains and Texas may be 40 degrees or more below average. Highs that are normally above zero for this time of year will have single-digit highs,” says Hennen.
The Midwest and Northeast must also deal with the cold. The cooler temperatures of the next seven days may not arrive until the weekend.
In New York City, the coldest temperature so far this winter was 14 degrees, recorded in late January. In the next seven to 10 days, it can get even colder than that, with potentially single digit casualties.
In Chicago, the maxims are projected in just one digit. This has not happened since January 2019, when I had a degree.
The long-term forecast suggests that the cold will continue to dominate the US weather pattern next week.
“Unfortunately, these below-average temperatures do not appear to moderate or decrease in the foreseeable future,” said the WPC.