Another polar vortex to send temperatures plunging across the U.S. next week. Here's how cold it will get.

Yahoo

14-02-2025

On the heels of successive winter storms that brought heavy snow and ice to a wide swath of the United States, another arctic blast tied to the polar vortex will send temperatures plummeting across the country early next week, bringing dangerously cold wind chills to millions of Americans.
According to the Associated Press, this will be the 10th time this winter that the polar vortex — a large area of cold air that spins over the North Pole — will drop into the U.S., delivering the latest blast of brutally frigid weather.
"Roses are red, violets are blue, and the polar vortex is coming for you!' Washington Post meteorologist Ben Noll wrote on X Friday, which is also Valentine's Day.
According to the National Weather Service, the latest blast of frigid air will move into the northern Rockies and northern Plains Saturday and spread to the Midwest Sunday and Eastern U.S. through much of next week as 'an impressive Arctic airmass takes hold.'
'Entrenched cold air will maintain lake effect snows and also offer a widespread threat of record cold temperatures,' the weather service said.
Very. Subzero temperatures are in the forecast next week for more than a dozen states, including Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, the weather service said.
For much of the country, temperatures will be well below their historical averages.
"Expecting minus 50s °F in Montana next Wednesday, more than 70°F below normal," meteorologist Ryan Maue, a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist, wrote on X. "Your face will fall off at these temperatures."
Expecting minus 50s °F in Montana next Wednesday, more than 70°F below normal at heart of polar vortex cold pool.Your face will fall off at these temperatures. pic.twitter.com/UJpWCHmokU
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) February 14, 2025
On Tuesday, the average low in the Lower 48 States is forecast to be 16.6 degrees, dropping to 14 degrees on Wednesday, Maue noted.
And that doesn't factor in the windchill.
With the exception of Hawaii, California and Florida, every U.S. state is forecast to experience windchills of 20 degrees or below sometime next week, the weather service said.
Wind chills could reach 40 below zero or lower in the Northern Plains. "This poses a great risk of hypothermia and frostbite to exposed skin," the weather service warned. "Have a cold-weather survival kit if traveling."
The deep freeze will follow the latest winter storm to sweep across the country.
The system brought heavy rain to Southern California and heavy snow to parts of the West and Midwest on Thursday and Friday, and is expected to bring more snow and ice to the Midwest and Northeast this weekend.
Snowfall totals of up to 10 inches was expected in parts of the upper Midwest, Great Lakes and New England, the weather service said, along with accumulating sleet and ice in parts of the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and Appalachians.