The blizzard may have passed but an arctic burst is keeping the northeastern United States in deep freeze with temperatures 20 to 30 degrees below average.
Washington metro area is experiencing coldest days in years with wind chill on the heels of Thursday’s snow keeping the area frigid.
The National Weather Service says while conditions have begun to improve across the northeastern U.S., the arctic surge is already underway accompanied by brisk winds at times.
“Dangerously low wind chill temperatures are to be expected the next couple of days with some blowing snow possible,” the NWS said.
On Thursday schools were closed in most of the area but in the afternoon main roads and highways saw a steady stream of traffic.
In the broader region, advisories include a combination of wind chill advisories and warnings extending from the upper Midwest across the Great Lakes/Ohio Valley and from the Carolinas northward.
Forecast high temperatures through Saturday will struggle to get above the single digits across the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, central/northern Appalachians, and much of New England.
“This easily reaches the 20 to 30 degree below climatology range which supports a chance for many daily temperature records to be broken. Frigid temperatures also extend down into the southern U.S. as lows plunge into the 20s down along the eastern Gulf Coast and into central Florida. Many daily records may be broken across this sector of the country as well,” according to the NWS.
The persistent shots of arctic air will provide further chances for lake effect snows into the weekend, forecasters say.
“Extremely cold temperatures aloft moving over many unfrozen lake surfaces will foster the development of widespread snow showers over all the major Great Lakes.”
