Bundle up, it’s going to feel like minus 40 once the coldest temperatures in a year arrive
By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist
(CNN) — Winter’s most potent Arctic blast yet is about to unleash dangerously low temperatures that will be the coldest to hit the United States in a year.
The cold will arrive this weekend and looks to be longer-lasting and more expansive than last January’s outbreak of Arctic air that, among other dangers, created one of the coldest-ever NFL games and the coldest Iowa caucuses on record.
Before the frigid air arrives, a short-lived warmup will encompass much of the Central US Thursday and Friday. It’ll be the first stretch since the start of the year that cities like Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Missouri, record above-average temperatures. But the tease of warmth will only make the extreme cold that follows feel more intense.
Brutally cold air from Siberia, near the Arctic Circle, will sink south over Canada late this week and rush into the northern US by the earliest hours of Saturday morning. It’ll then expand over much of the West and Central US Saturday and reach parts of the South and East Sunday. Temperatures could be almost 30 degrees below normal by Monday for millions across the Lower 48 in what’s already the coldest part of the year.
The most extreme cold will settle over the Dakotas later this weekend into early next week.
Bismarck, North Dakota, hasn’t had a below zero high temperature since last January, but that could happen on both Sunday and Monday. Low temperatures in the northern part of the state could bottom out between 25 to 30 degrees below zero by Monday morning.
Breezy winds will arrive along with the cold and send wind chills to a life-threatening 40 to nearly 50 below zero in North Dakota Monday morning. Wind chills this severe can cause frostbite on exposed skin in 10 minutes or less, according to the National Weather Service.
Single-digit wind chills will cover most of the US Monday morning and are possible 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 the high temperature only climbing a few degrees above freezing. It’ll also be Chicago’s coldest day of the year with the high temperature likely only reaching around 10 degrees.
Cold air will also blast the East Coast and Southeast Monday. High temperatures in the single digits and teens are likely in northern New England with 30s and 40s from the mid-Atlantic to much of the Southeast.
Tuesday could be just as cold, if not colder for some, especially in the East and South.
Cold will crash multiple events
The divisional round of the NFL playoffs will kick off just as the cold arrives in the same areas.
The temperature will be in the 20s for the Saturday mid-afternoon kickoff between the Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City, Missouri, but the wind chill will hover in the teens for kickoff and throughout the game.
Frostbite and hypothermia are serious risks in wind chills this cold, especially with fans exposed in the open-air stadium for several hours. Last January’s infamously cold game in Kansas City was played with wind chills more than 20 below zero. Dozens of people showed signs of hypothermia and more than a dozen were transported to local hospitals for care.
Brutal cold is also in store for Sunday’s Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills matchup in Orchard Park, New York. Temperatures will be in the upper teens for the early evening kickoff and fall several degrees from there. Wind chills will be in the single digits for the entire game.
The coldest air of the season will slink into Washington, DC, on Monday for Inauguration Day for President-elect Donald Trump. A high 15 degrees below normal in the upper 20s is expected. It’ll be the coldest Inauguration Day since former President Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009 when the temperature topped out at 30 degrees.
The-CNN-Wire
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