The central to eastern US is set to be blasted with some of the most extreme cold anywhere on Earth just before Christmas, according to a shocking new forecast.
From the Midwest to the East Coast temperatures will be about 15 to 20 degrees below the December average beginning in about the third week of the month, MIT climatologist Judah Cohen predicted.
In New York City, temperatures are typically about 37 degrees Fahrenheit in mid-December – meaning the city could experience sustained colds in the low 20s to teens.
“My thinking is that the cold the first week of December is the appetizer and the main course will be in mid-December,” Cohen told USA Today.
“The most expansive region of most likely extreme cold on Earth stretches from the Canadian Plains to the US East Coast in the 3rd week of December,” Cohen said, citing findings from his weather modeling computer.
That deadly cold air will come from the movement of the polar vortex dipping low and bringing cold arctic air over the States.
Exactly how frigid the temperatures will be is not yet clear and varies greatly by region, but Cohen expects them to dip below what is being felt this week in most places.
The Midwest is facing highs in the 10s and mid-20s in some areas this week, while regions from Illinois to Missouri will experience lows around 0.
What Cohen’s model does show is that the most anomalously cold air relative to monthly averages anywhere in the world is headed for the East Coast later this month.
Some areas on the East Coast are already facing the beginnings of that cold, including the Albany area, which is forecast to have temperatures in the teens and 20s this weekend into next week.
Those temperatures are about 15 to 20 degrees below December averages for the area – a mirror of what much of the country can expect to experience later in the month, Cohen said.
And whether that cold burst will bring snow remains unclear – but the freezing temperatures will be on hand if storm systems develop.
Winter weather blew into much of the US this week, with November snow falls blanketing parts of the Midwest over the weekend and causing travel chaos for thousands.
The Northeast is also due to get walloped by its first winter storm of the season on Tuesday, with a Nor’Easter bearing down on the region and dumping snow from Pennsylvania all the way to Maine.
Swaths of New York and New England will see as much as 8 inches, while some pockets in New York, New Hampshire and Vermont could see up to 12 inches, according to Fox Weather forecasts.
New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and the coastal cities are unlikely to see any accumulation however, with just a wintery mix of morning flurries turning into cold rain that will fall throughout the day.
That storm will blow out of the area by Wednesday morning.
