A powerful Arctic blast is forecast to plunge the United States into unusually cold temperatures, with every state experiencing a chill starting from Wednesday.
A map shared on Tuesday by Weather Track US, a group run by student weather enthusiasts, forecast that temperatures could reach as far as 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit below average temperatures in some areas.
The forecast was for Wednesday until Thursday, December 5.
The group posted the map to X, writing that the cold air would leave most of the lower 48 states at least 10 degrees below average. All of the lower 48 will be affected by the blast.
We're in for a very significant blast of Arctic/Siberian air later this week and into early December.
This airmass will drop temps up to 25°F below average in some areas, but most of the CONUS will be at least 10°F below average.
Snow will be possible for parts of the Great... pic.twitter.com/QUMBDEiJ4u
"We're in for a very significant blast of Arctic/Siberian air later this week and into early December," the group wrote. "Snow will be possible for parts of the Great Lakes & Northeast U.S. Freezing possible down towards the Gulf Coast & Southwest U.S. regions."
The biggest shifts away from the average temperatures are in two patches, one in the northern Great Plains, covering eastern Montana, North Dakota, northeastern South Dakota, and eastern Minnesota, and another patch centering on Appalachia, covering Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia, as well as parts of Arkansas, Missisippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.
In these two patches, temperatures are expected to drop more than 20 degrees below normal for this time of year.
Freezing temperatures are anticipated in all states east of the Rockies, with no state spared from the unusual chill, Weather Track US's map indicates.
The majority of states, stretching from Montana to Texas in the west, and across to New Hampshire in the northeast and Florida in the southeast, will have temperatures 10 degrees below average.
Newsweek has contacted Weather Track US via online form for comment.
The Washington Post reported that more than two dozen states could experience single-digit or below-zero temperatures.
The incoming cold air mass originates from the Laptev Sea north of Russia, traveling over 4,000 miles to reach the eastern U.S., where it will settle through mid-December.
The frigid temperatures are expected to remain through the weekend, giving holiday travelers something to contend with as they journey home. Nearly 80 million Americans are expected to travel for Thanksgiving this year, the AAA reported.
The National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center on Tuesday warned that temperatures could plunge as much as 40 degrees below zero when factoring in wind chill this weekend
"The first significant Arctic outbreak of the season will arrive in the northern Plains on Thanksgiving. The cold will advance farther south and east through much of the Plains and Midwest on Friday and persist into this weekend," the NWS Weather Prediction Center said.
"Temperatures are likely to be the coldest since mid-late February in the northern Plains and Midwest, providing an abrupt change from the record, or near-record, warm autumn so far."
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