An arctic cold outbreak will deliver record-setting, frigid air to parts of the country, including the Deep South through Wednesday. Daily records for mid-January could be broken from Oregon to the Gulf Coast.
When It Will Happen: The first plunge of cold air already surged south through the Plains. A reporting station near Raynesford, Montana, plunged to minus 43 degrees Friday morning. Watson Lake, British Columbia, Canada, plunged to minus 57 degrees.
Dickinson, North Dakota, registered a minus 66 degree wind chill early Saturday morning. Even more brutal, Lupin, in Canada’s Northwest Territories measured a minus 77 degree wind chill Saturday morning, with a 40 mph wind accompanying temperatures in the minus 30s.
(CURRENT MAP TRACKERS: Temperatures | Wind Chills)
An even stronger cold blast is now surging south through the Plains and Midwest before working its way toward the Southeast and finally the East Coast Wednesday.
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How Cold It Will Get: During the coldest days of the outbreak…
- Lows in the 20s, perhaps teens, will occur along the northern Gulf Coast, from East Texas to North Florida.
- Teens, perhaps a few single digit-lows, are expected in the Deep South.
- Below-zero low temperatures could occur as far south as parts of the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and northern Arkansas.
- Lows in the minus 20s are possible as far south as Iowa and Nebraska.
- Some lows in Montana will reach minus 40 degrees.
Daily records – coldest for the calendar day – are possible in parts of the Plains and Deep South, Monday through Wednesday.
Among the notables, Chicago’s O’Hare Airport could plunge to the minus teens for the first time since the January 2019 cold outbreak, and could fail to rise above zero during the day Monday and/or Tuesday. Oklahoma City could plunge below zero for the first time since the historic February 2021 cold outbreak. That said, we don’t expect this outbreak to match the ferocity of either the January 2019 or February 2021 outbreaks.
(FORECAST DETAILS: 10-Day U.S. Highs and Lows)
Wind Chill Danger: Strong winds will also accompany the arctic air. Those winds will combine with the cold to produce dangerous wind chills in the Rockies, Plains and Midwest.
Some wind chills in the Northern Plains could drop into the minus 40s, 50s even 60s, at times, which could lead to frostbite on any exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes.
Continue reading: Weather Channel
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