This TikToker breaks it all down, watch:
@ryanhallyall Coldest #christmas in decades #weathertok
THIS is a big one.
Accuweather (click the link for regional explanations):
A burst of Arctic air that AccuWeather meteorologists have been monitoring since last week is poised to plunge the eastern two-thirds of the United States into a deep freeze ahead of Christmas, bringing the coldest air in decades to some areas and causing heating demands to sky rocket.
Subfreezing and, in some cases, subzero temperatures are expected to grip areas from the northern Rockies to the Plains, East and South. The mercury could dip to 25-50 degrees Fahrenheit below late-December averages during the height of the cold.
“The Arctic air can envelop much of the central and eastern part of the country just prior to the holiday weekend, threatening the coldest pre-Christmas stretch in decades,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Elizabeth Danco said.
Even more:
Santa may need a heavier coat as Christmas temperatures challenge long-standing records
Ol’ St. Nick might be unable to tell the difference between the United States and the North Pole. Ahead of the holiday weekend, a blast of Arctic air will soon send the eastern two-thirds of the United States into a deep freeze, with temperatures challenging records that have stood for nearly four decades.
After taking a look at afternoon temperatures on Dec. 25 during the last 40 years, and checking the data twice, 1983 has stood as the coldest Christmas on record for the nation, according to AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell.
“Christmas 1983 was legendary,” Ferrell said. “The average temperature across the U.S. was around 20 degrees F, and, to this day, most low temperature records from Dec. 25, 1983, still stand in much of the eastern half of the nation.”
“[December 1983] started out cold and only got colder,” Joe Sheehan, a retired technician for the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, wrote in a summary of the coldest December on record. Sheehan attributed the cold month to “a persistent jet stream pattern that brought one cold Arctic blast after another.”
NBC has more:
Arctic blast to bring ‘life-threatening’ cold to parts of U.S.
A bitter blast of arctic air from Canada is expected to bring “life-threatening” cold to parts of the United States in the lead-up to Christmas, weather officials have warned.
A strong arctic high pressure system extending from western Canada to the northern Plains is expected to bring “very cold air” across the region, while extending into parts of the Pacific Northwest this week, the National Weather Service said. As of Tuesday morning, 46 million people were under winter alerts stretching from the northern Plains into the Ohio Valley.
…
The heaviest snowfall amounts are expected in the higher terrain of the Cascades and into northern Idaho, northwest Montana and western Wyoming, the weather service said, adding: “These regions will have the best chances for over a foot of snow.”
The dangerous arctic air over the northern Plains and western Canada is expected to move south, following behind a system already crossing the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, it said.
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Cold weather, combined with wind gusts of up to 60 mph, could bring “life-threatening” wind chill values as low as -40 degrees to parts of the central and northcentral U.S., the weather service said.
“This level of cold can be life threatening and lead to frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes,” it said.
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