CNN
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Winter’s most powerful Arctic blast is poised to unleash dangerously low temperatures that will be the coldest the United States has recorded in a year.
The cold will arrive this weekend and appears to be more lasting and widespread than last January’s arctic air outbreak which, among other dangers, created one of the coldest NFL games in history and the Coldest Iowa caucuses on record.
Before the frigid air arrives, a short-lived warm-up will encompass much of the central United States Thursday and Friday. This will be the first time since the start of the year that cities like Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Missouri, have recorded above-average temperatures. But the heat will only make the extreme cold that follows more intense.
Extremely cold air from Siberia near the Arctic Circle will descend south over Canada by the end of the week and rush toward the northern United States in the early hours of Saturday morning. It will then extend across much of the western and central United States on Saturday and reach parts of the South and East on Sunday. Temperatures could be nearly 30 degrees below normal by Monday for millions of people in the Lower 48 region, in what is already the coldest time of the year.
The most extreme cold will move into the Dakotas later this weekend and early next week.
Bismarck, North Dakota hasn’t seen subzero temperatures since last January, but that could happen Sunday and Monday. Low temperatures in the northern part of the state could reach a low of between 25 and 30 degrees below zero by Monday morning.
Breezy winds will arrive with the cold and send wind chills to potentially life-threatening temperatures of 40 to near 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 United States Monday morning and are possible as far west as Nevada, south to Texas, and east to 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 zero. It will also be the coldest day of the year in Chicago, with the high temperature likely only reaching around 10 degrees.
Cold air will also blow across the East Coast and Southeast on Monday. High temperatures in the single digits or teens are likely across northern New England, with temperatures in the 30s to 40s from the Mid-Atlantic to much of the Southeast.
Tuesday could be just as cold, or colder for some, especially in the East and South.
The divisional round of the NFL playoffs will begin just as the cold weather arrives in the same regions.
The temperature will be in the 20s for Saturday’s mid-afternoon kickoff between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City, Missouri, but the wind chill will hover in the teens for now sending and throughout the match.
Frostbite and hypothermia are serious risks in wind chill in this cold, especially when fans are exposed in the open-air stadium for several hours. Last January’s infamous game in Kansas City took place with a wind chill of more than 20 degrees below zero. Dozens of people showed signs of hypothermia and more than a dozen were transported to local hospitals for treatment.
Brutal cold is also expected during Sunday’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York. Temperatures will reach the single digits for kickoff in the early evening and drop several degrees from there. Wind chills will be in the single digits for the entire game.
The coldest air of the season will creep into Washington, D.C., on Monday for President-elect Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day. A high of 15 degrees below normal is expected in the upper 20s. It will be the coldest Inauguration Day since former President Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, when temperatures peaked at 30 degrees.
