Arctic blast forecast to break dozens of low temperature records in Eastern U.S. this weekend
The Arctic blast sweeping across the Great Lakes and the East Coast on Friday could lead to a remarkably widespread swath of record low temperatures on Saturday morning.
The air mass that will be entrenched over the East Coast, particularly New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, is coming straight from northern Canada, and longstanding records appear poised to tumble.
For example, in New York's Central Park, the record low for Nov. 11 is 28 degrees Fahrenheit, set in 1933. The forecast low temperature for Saturday in that same location? Around 23 degrees, with a wind chill well below that.
In southern New England, wind chill values will be in the negative single digits in inland areas overnight, which is unusually cold for early November. The low temperature forecast in Boston on Nov. 11 is 21 degrees Fahrenheit, which would break the existing record of 24 degrees, set in 1901.
Numerous locations in interior areas of New England will see lows in the teens on Saturday morning, with a few single digit readings possible. The National Weather Service (NWS) is predicting record-setting low temperatures to occur in Hartford, Albany, and Washington, D.C., among other locations.
It's not just the intensity of the cold that is unusual, though — it's also the expansiveness of this event.
Based on NWS forecasts, which are subject to change throughout the day, there may be as many as 42 record lows set at major weather observing stations from Kentucky to Ohio, on northeast into New Hampshire.
The actual number will probably be higher, since this count does not include weather observing sites in rural locations or citizen observers with validated instruments.
The cold air blowing over the relatively warm waters of the Great Lakes is resulting in lake effect snow streaming off each of the lakes on Friday, with some of this likely to continue throughout the weekend.
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Meteorologists were sharing satellite images of the lake effect snow bands via Twitter. Such narrow streamers of clouds are a telltale sign of an Arctic air mass moving in, and snow was reported in Chicago on Friday morning, among other areas.
This cold snap will be short-lived, however, with moderating temperatures forecast for the East into next week. Computer models are currently vacillating between suggestions of a snowy Thanksgiving week in the Midwest and Northeast, and an unusually mild holiday. And yes, you're not alone in thinking that those are opposites. Such is life in medium to long-range weather forecasting.
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The cold snap also comes during one of the warmest fall seasons on record in the Northeast. So far this year, the lower 48 states have had their third-warmest year on record. Every state across the lower 48 states saw milder-than-average conditions during the first 10 months of the year.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
