Shake off bitter cold for merely chilly this week
Chilly temperatures may feel unseasonably warm by Wednesday when the forecast returns to normal after a weekend blast of frigid air and scattered snowstorms across the Upper Plains, Midwest and East Coast.
Dramatic temperature gains forecast from Monday to Tuesday afternoon include Oklahoma City jumping from freezing to nearly 50 degrees, according to AccuWeather.com. Chicago’s high will leap from the teens to nearly 30 degrees.
The East Coast will take a little longer to shake off the chill after a storm front moved out to sea Sunday. But New York and Boston should each reach highs in the 40s by Wednesday, according to AccuWeather.
“After a few days of below-normal temperatures in the Midwest and eastern U.S. early in the week, highs will return to near average by Wednesday,” said Max Vido, an AccuWeather meteorologist.
The relative warmth makes new snowfall unlikely for Christmas along the Interstate 95 corridor.
“For those dreaming of a white Christmas, they’ll have to rely on unmelted snow cover from previously fallen snow,” Vido said. “This area will be across the interior Northeast, lake-effect snow regions and throughout the Midwest.”
The Midwest and Upper Plains may appreciate the calm.
Record-low temperatures were recorded across South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota during the weekend, and a blizzard shut down parts of Interstate 90 in Montana. Huron, S.D., and Marshall, Minn., each set a record for Sunday's date at 31 degrees below zero, according to the National Weather Service.
The arctic blast led to numerous highway accidents and other storm-related fatalities.
A 44-year-old man died Saturday morning while shoveling outside his home, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Two children, 6 and 9, were hospitalized in Madison after being struck by a city snowplow, police told the paper.
A tanker carrying gasoline skidded off a highway in Baltimore on Saturday and exploded, according to the Associated Press. Two people died in the nearly 70-vehicle pileup on Interstate 95.
In Ohio, a Columbus woman died Saturday when her car skidded off a slick road, authorities told AP.
Indiana had dozens of crashes — two of them with fatalities — because of freezing rain and ice, according to AP. The roads were so slick that authorities had to move motorists stranded on an overpass with a ladder.
Matt Trgovac left a birthday party in Castleton, Ind., at 11 p.m. Saturday and spent 11 hours stuck on Interstate 465, according to The Indianapolis Star. After conserving fuel by turning his Dodge Dart on and off, Trgovac's sister lowered supplies of gas, water and breakfast burritos on a bungee cord from a highway overpass.
"We sat there, we waited for things to start moving, and they didn't start moving, and that's when we started to get nervous," Trgovac said of himself and his fiance, Frank Nern. "We were turning the car off and on for about five minutes."
Airlines canceled more than 1,100 flights by 3 p.m. Sunday into, within or out of the U.S., and more than 3,700 were delayed, according to Flightaware.com, a flight-tracking service. Five times as many flights were canceled or delayed since winter storms began disrupting travel Thursday.
About 100 travelers spent Saturday night at Indianapolis airport after weather delayed their flights. But most were on their way Sunday morning.
At Chicago’s O’Hare airport, an airliner slid off the runway early Sunday. But there were no injuries in the 1 a.m. incident.
The region was cold. Bismarck, N.D., set a record low for Dec. 17 at 31 degrees below zero, National Weather Service meteorologist Zachary Hargrove told AP. Linton, N.D., was colder at minus 33 degrees on Sunday, Hargrove said.