Deep freeze with subzero temps hits Northeast and Midwest as West Coast braces for heavy rain
The unrelenting freezing temperatures in the Northeast and Midwest aren't letting up today.
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A brutal shot of cold air is dominating the weather over the eastern
half of the country, prompting a slew of wind chill advisories and
warnings for parts of the Midwest and a large portion of the East Coast,
from Virginia to Vermont.
Wind chills this morning were forecast to fall to minus 16 degrees in
Boston; minus 9 degrees in New York City; minus 12 degrees in Chicago;
17 degrees in Atlanta; and 7 degrees in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Aside from being uncomfortable and disruptive, the low wind chills in
the Northeast can be life-threatening, with frostbite possible in as
little as 10 minutes of exposure.
On Sunday, the Midwest will begin to see some relief with less severe
wind chills. The Northeast, however, will continue to remain quite cold
with dangerous wind chills below zero.
The wind chill is expected to be minus 6 degrees in New York City on
Sunday morning, and minus 13 degrees in Boston, while it will likely
warm up to minus 1 degree in Chicago and 19 degrees in Kansas City.
Sunday is set to be New York City's 13th straight day below freezing
New Yorkers may already have forgotten what above-freezing temperatures
feel like: The last time the metropolitan area was above freezing was Christmas
Day. Sunday is forecast to be the 13th straight day below freezing,
which would tie for the third-longest stretch ever of temperatures below
32 degrees in New York City and would be the longest stretch since
January 1961.
A record in Raleigh
Even in Raleigh, North Carolina, the cold blast is breaking a record. If
Raleigh does not warm to above freezing by Saturday evening it will
have a new record for number of consecutive hours below freezing. The
old record, from January 1982, is 159 hours.
Relief is coming next week
But a pattern change is lurking over the next few days: Relatively
milder air will slowly expand eastward and temperatures are expected to
finally rise above freezing in much of the Midwest and Northeast,
including Chicago, New York City, Indianapolis and Raleigh. In fact, it will be nearly 30 degrees warmer in parts of these regions by Tuesday.
At the end of the upcoming week, there are higher probabilities for above-average temperatures for the Northeast.
Looking ahead toward the latter part of the month, the long-term
forecast suggests a January thaw will be coming for much of the country.
Rain heading to the West Coast
As for the West Coast, there is growing concern over a new storm that is
heading towards California from Monday through Wednesday. This could be
a potentially dangerous situation with heavy rain. There's also a
concern that the storm could cause debris flows in recent burn areas in
Southern California.
A weak disturbance will continue to move through parts of the West
today. Another storm will develop over the Pacific Northwest and impact
the region on Sunday.
The next significant weather concern comes from a storm system
developing in the Pacific. The storm will carry a good deal of
precipitation towards all of California form Monday to Wednesday.
The primary concern is the onslaught of rain that is coming for the
lower elevations and hillsides. A potentially dangerous situation will
develop across the burn areas of the Thomas, Creek and La Tuna burn
areas in Southern California. Locally, 2 to 4 inches of rain will be
likely with high hourly rainfall rates.
This storm will bring a good amount of mountain snow, which will hamper travel in the mountain passes.
Central US forecast
As for the central United States, out ahead of a weak system developing
in the region, there is a chance for some freezing drizzle across much
of Missouri and western Illinois on Sunday.
As the system develops late Sunday into Monday, some light snow will track towards the Great Lakes Region.
By Monday, the precipitation will move to the Northeast with light snow and a light wintry mix possible.
At this time, no accumulation appears to be significant for the central
U.S. However, light wintry precipitation can hamper travel locally.
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