Winter’s Most Potent Arctic Blast Yet to Unleash Dangerously Low Temperatures
A powerful Arctic blast is expected to bring the coldest temperatures to the United States in over a year. The cold air will arrive this weekend and last longer and expand further than January’s outbreak, which created one of the coldest NFL games and the coldest Iowa caucuses on record.
A short-lived warmup is expected on Thursday and Friday, but this will only make the extreme cold that follows feel more intense. Brutally cold air from Siberia will sink south over Canada and rush into the northern US by Saturday morning, then expand over much of the West and Central US on Saturday and reach parts of the South and East on Sunday.
The Dakotas will see the most extreme cold, with temperatures potentially plummeting to -30 degrees Fahrenheit or lower by Monday morning. Wind chills will be a life-threatening 40 to 50 below zero, causing frostbite in as little as 10 minutes. Single-digit wind chills are expected across the US, including as far west as Nevada, as far south as Texas, and as far east as Maine.
Monday will likely be the coldest day of the season so far for Dallas, with a high temperature only climbing a few degrees above freezing. Chicago’s high temperature is expected to reach around 10 degrees. The East Coast and Southeast will also see cold temperatures, with highs in the single digits and teens expected in northern New England and 30s and 40s in the mid-Atlantic to the Southeast.
The divisional round of the NFL playoffs will kick off as the cold air arrives, with temperatures in the 20s and wind chills in the teens expected in Kansas City and Orchard Park. Frostbite and hypothermia are serious risks, especially for fans exposed to the cold for several hours. The coldest air of the season will also arrive in Washington, DC, on Monday, with a high temperature expected in the upper 20s for Inauguration Day.