How airlines keep flights running smoothly during winter storms
What airlines do to prepare for winter weather and keep passengers safe
A fierce cold snap is in the forecast for the central and eastern U.S. starting around Nov. 8, forecasters warned, with record-breaking cold possible.
The outbreak will bring the most significant temperature plunge since spring and affect more than 100 million people, AccuWeather said.
“A cold outbreak will plunge into the U.S. this weekend and bring the coldest air of the season to the Midwest and Northeast, a widespread freeze into the Deep South with some record lows possible as far South as Florida,” said Weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman in an online forecast.
“Temperatures will feel more like mid-December or even Christmastime in many places by next week,” AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.
Incredibly, by Nov. 11, parts of the southeast United States are expected to be about as cold as Nuuk, Greenland – near the edge of the Arctic Circle, noted meteorologist Ben Noll on X on Friday Nov. 7.
“It will be warmer in St. John’s, Newfoundland, than in parts of northern Florida,” he said.
On X, Weather Trader meteorologist Ryan Maue called it “historic cold” that “reminds me of Siberia!”
How cold will it get? Map shows widespread minimum temps in the 20s.
“A series of successive cold fronts will push south across the central and eastern U.S., ushering in a cold and dry Arctic air mass,” the Weather Prediction Center said in an online forecast.
In most of the Midwest, South and East, these will be the coldest daytime temperatures of fall, so far, Erdman said.
The coldest temperatures are forecast to be in the northern Plains and Upper Midwest, where highs will struggle to rise above freezing and lows will be in the teens, maybe the single digits, over the weekend, the Weather Prediction Center said.
Overall, temperatures are forecast to drop to 10-20 degrees below average, with sub-freezing lows forecast as far south as the southern Plains and Southeast Sunday and Monday nights.
Southern freeze
Freezing temperatures and frost may even be possible down to the Gulf Coast Monday night, Nov. 10.
“The coldest morning in the pattern for the Southeast will be Tuesday morning when lows in the 20s will be widespread over the interior with lows in the 30s just inland along the Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana coasts,” Pastelok said.
“Temperatures will be low enough to produce widespread frost or a hard freeze across interior portions of the Southeast,” he added.
“That could flirt with Veterans Day (Tuesday) record lows in over a dozen locations in the Southeast including Savannah, Georgia (31 degrees), Mobile, Alabama (31 degrees), and Ft. Myers, Florida (45 degrees),” Erdman said.
Residents should take precautions to protect outdoor plumbing and un-winterized irrigation systems, AccuWeather advised. The cold will also bring an end to the growing season for areas that have yet to experience a hard freeze, stretching from parts of the central Plains to much of the Southeast.
Is snow in the weather forecast?
Along with the cold air will come an increased chance of snow across the northern tier.
The colder conditions will raise the potential for accumulating snow across parts of the Midwest and the Appalachians, including areas farther south and at lower elevations than usual, AccuWeather said.
“Some major metropolitan areas and heavily traveled highway corridors could pick up light accumulations, potentially creating slick roads and hazardous travel conditions early next week,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. Cities potentially impacted include Chicago and Detroit.
In addition, he said the action of cold air passing over the warm waters of the Great Lakes will unleash lake-effect rain and wet snow. “Where the bands of snow set up and linger, there can be several inches of accumulation and slippery travel from Sunday to Monday and perhaps into Tuesday off lakes Erie and Ontario.”
