Global Warming…Smobal Warming! Planet’s most abnormally cold air to surge into Lower 48 states
Stunning cold is crashing southward from the Arctic into the Lower 48 states. It could break hundreds of records this weekend into early next week. The bitter cold will arrive in the wake of another blockbuster storm sweeping the nation.
The Arctic blast will produce the planet’s biggest negative temperature anomalies over parts of the western and central United States, in some places up to 60 degrees below normal. It will make for icy NFL playoff games in Kansas City and Buffalo this weekend and frigid Iowa caucuses Monday, and could test the Texas power grid.
On Friday morning, the cold had already begun to invade large parts of the western and central United States. The most extreme cold was in northern Montana, where wind chills plunged as low as minus-60 with actual air temperatures as low as minus-30. Air temperatures plummeted into single digits as far south as southern Kansas and as far east as Minneapolis.
It is poised to turn even more frigid over the weekend.
Wind chills below minus-40 degrees are forecast for much of the northern Plains and northern Rockies. “This will pose an increased risk of frostbite on exposed skin and hypothermia,” the National Weather Service warned. “Have a cold survival kit if you must travel.”
