Very cold weather that has gripped a broad swath of the United States and set record-low temperatures in many locations is expected to persist through the weekend, forecasters said.
The chill will continue particularly across the Northern Plains and the Midwest. Some snow will also be in the mix, especially across the northern Rocky Mountains.
“Things will start to warm up a little” by early next week, said Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
Records fell amid arctic cold.
Arctic air from Canada dropped into the Northern Plains on Wednesday and then drifted across the Midwest before arriving in the Northeast by Friday, sending temperatures plunging.
Saranac Lake, a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Northern New York, was the coldest spot in the country on Friday morning at minus 22 degrees, according to the Weather Prediction Center. That temperature broke a same-day record of minus 20 degrees that was set in 2003.
“With temperatures that cold, frostbite settles in very quick,” said Robert Haynes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Burlington, Vt. “Any moisture in your nose usually freezes up in temperatures below zero. You feel a tingling sensation in your nose.”
A daily record was also broken at LaGuardia Airport in New York, with a low of 20 degrees, breaking the previous record of 21 degrees, set in 1942.
Records fell in the Midwest on Thursday as the frigid air mass engulfed the region.
In Hibbing, Minn., the childhood hometown of the singer and songwriter Bob Dylan, a temperature of minus 19 broke the previous record of minus 17 degrees, which was set in 1991.
In Waterloo, Iowa, which is known for its huge John Deere manufacturing complex, the temperature dropped to a record low of minus 15 degrees. The previous record was seven below zero, set in 1991.
Below-normal temperatures will continue.
Another push of cold air is forecast to keep temperatures below normal this weekend, particularly in Minnesota and Iowa.
Overnight temperatures are expected to drop below zero across portions of the Dakotas and Minnesota, especially by Sunday morning. Mr. Pereira said temperatures most likely won’t be “quite as cold” as they were during the week.
The chill will spread into the Northeast on Monday.
By the end of Friday, snow accumulations of one to three inches were expected from the southern Appalachians into central Virginia, with lower snow totals to the north.
“That’s all moving out today,” Mr. Pereira said. “It should be dry and cold in the Mid-Atlantic after that.”
By Saturday, a storm that moved across the Pacific Northwest will have arrived in the northern Rocky Mountains and was expected to bring lots of snow.
Accumulations of one to two feet are predicted across the higher terrain, from northern Idaho to western Montana, and extending over the Wasatch Range on the Idaho-Utah border and western Wyoming and into the Colorado Rockies, the Weather Prediction Center said.
The chance of snow in the Rocky Mountains will diminish by Saturday night and then shift to the Dakotas, Iowa and southern Minnesota by Saturday afternoon into early Sunday. Up to four to six inches of snow are possible in some locations.
The storm is predicted to weaken as it spreads east into the Midwest.
Amy Graff is a Times reporter covering weather, wildfires and earthquakes.
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