Bundle Up: Coldest Temps of the Year Bring Feels Like -40

A blast of frigid air is set to bring the coldest temperatures of the year, with wind chills making it feel like -40. It's time to bundle up and take extra precautions to stay warm as this intense cold front moves in. Be prepared for extreme weather conditions and ensure you're dressed appropriately for the freezing temperatures.

Winter's most intense Arctic blast is set to bring dangerously low temperatures, marking the coldest weather of the year in the United States.

The cold will arrive this weekend, lasting longer and affecting a wider area than last January’s Arctic air outbreak. This previous event brought extreme cold, including one of the coldest NFL games and the coldest Iowa caucuses ever recorded.

Before the cold hits, a brief warmup will sweep across much of the Central US on Thursday and Friday. This will be the first time since the new year that cities like Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Missouri, experience above-average temperatures. However, this warm spell will only make the ensuing frigid air feel even more intense.

Brutally cold air from Siberia will move south over Canada later this week, reaching the northern US by early Saturday. It will then spread across the West and Central US on Saturday and reach parts of the South and East by Sunday. By Monday, temperatures could be as much as 30 degrees below normal in millions of areas across the Lower 48.

The most extreme cold will settle over the Dakotas later this weekend into early next week.

Bismarck, North Dakota, hasn’t had a high temperature below zero since last January, but that could change on both Sunday and Monday. Northern parts of the state could see temperatures plummet between 25 and 30 degrees below zero by Monday morning.

Strong winds will accompany the cold, creating wind chills as low as 40 to nearly 50 below zero in North Dakota by Monday morning. These wind chills can cause frostbite in under 10 minutes, according to the National Weather Service.

Single-digit wind chills will cover much of the US on Monday morning, reaching as far west as Nevada, as far south as Texas, and as far east as Maine.

Monday is expected to be the coldest day of the season for Dallas, with highs just above freezing. It will also be Chicago's coldest day, with the high likely only reaching 10 degrees.

The East Coast and Southeast will also experience extreme cold on Monday, with highs in the single digits and teens in northern New England, and 30s and 40s across the mid-Atlantic to much of the Southeast.

Tuesday may bring similarly cold temperatures, particularly in the East and South.

This cold will also impact multiple events, including the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, which will kick off as the cold front arrives.

The Saturday afternoon game between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City, Missouri, will see temperatures in the 20s, with wind chills in the teens during the game.

Wind chills this severe pose serious risks of frostbite and hypothermia, especially for fans exposed in open-air stadiums for several hours. Last January’s Kansas City game saw wind chills more than 20 below zero, leading to hypothermia cases and hospitalizations.

The Sunday Baltimore Ravens vs. Buffalo Bills matchup in Orchard Park, New York, will face brutal cold, with temperatures in the upper teens and wind chills in the single digits throughout the game.

The coldest air of the season will also reach Washington, DC, on Monday, Inauguration Day for President-elect Donald Trump. The high is expected to be 15 degrees below normal, in the upper 20s, making it the coldest Inauguration Day since Barack Obama's first in 2009, when the temperature topped out at 30 degrees.

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Source: CNN‍