“This first pressure on the North Pole brings dangerous cold, but is mostly confined to the northern level of states,” says CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen. “This next round of cold air for the coming weekend looks even more intense and is diving south through many of the Plains to Texas and is likely to bring dozens of records.”
The cold air in the early week will be confined to the northern half of the US, with high temperatures below freezing as far south as Oklahoma. Across northern Minnesota and much of Montana and northern Dakota, the highs will struggle to climb past zero.
“Wind chill values can be experienced well below zero and as low as (minus) 50 degrees” from Montana through the Upper Michigan Peninsula, says the WPC.
Wind chill warnings are in effect early Monday afternoon for more than 5 million people. In some cases, it is so cold that freezing can occur in just five minutes for those who are not properly dressed.
In Minneapolis, the high temperature reached just minus 3 degrees on Sunday. The last time the high temperature was in the cold more than two years ago was in January 2019. The temperature rises again until the teens in the week before it drops to zero again over the weekend.
Fargo, North Dakota, is another city that has never seen such cold years ago. The high yesterday was minus 8. It has not been that cold since 2019, when the high was only 10 below. The highs should not be as low as last weekend, but will move around the zero degree point this week.
Meanwhile, the temperature in the southern states will be 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 every continental US state
The cold air will gradually expand southwards. By the weekend, every state in the Lower 48 should experience temperatures below average. The only area that could still be on the warmer side of normal is South Florida.
A very slow-moving cold front wrapped across the southern plains will serve as the boundary between high temperatures in the 30s and 40s in North Texas and 70s and 80s in central and southern Texas during the middle of the week.
On Wednesday, Dallas had a forecast in the mid-40s, while Austin would be in the mid-70s. This is about a temperature difference of 30 degrees in just over 200 miles.
In the second half of this week, temperatures in the northern plains will be below zero. Teenagers and 20s are predicted from the interior Northwest by the central plains, the Middle East and inland Northeast, with the 40s and 50s expected in the south and southeast.
In some cases, these high temperatures can break records for cold.
Low temperatures will be even lower, and every state in the neighboring U.S. except Florida is predicted to fall below freezing.
Within the next seven days, 40 million people could experience the temperature below zero.
During Valentine’s Day weekend, there is expected to be another explosion of dangerous cold air.
The coldest air compared to normal may be in the south-central US.
“Some areas in the Plains and in Texas may be 40 degrees or more below average. Highs that are normally freezing during this time of year will see the single digits with a peak,” says Hennen.
The Midwest and Northeast will probably handle the cold as well. The lowest temperatures of the next seven days may only come over the weekend.
In New York City, the coldest temperature so far this winter was 14 degrees, which was recorded in late January. In the next seven to ten days, it could get even colder than lows in the single digits.
In Chicago, the highs are expected to be shown only in single digits. This has not happened since January 2019, when it was 1 degree.
The long-term forecast indicates that the cold next week will dominate the weather pattern in the US.
“Unfortunately, below-average temperatures do not appear to be moderate in the foreseeable future,” the WPC said.