Wall of Arctic cold marches South, East
An unrelenting wall of Arctic air continued its march toward the South and East on Wednesday after as much as 3 feet of record-breaking snow buried portions of the upper Midwest.
We'd better get used to the chill, too, as the cold will stick around for awhile, said AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines. "We're locked into a below-normal weather pattern for at least the next week or so, perhaps even up to the ten-day time frame." he said.
Michigan's Upper Peninsula was hardest hit by the snow this week: Ishpeming, Mich., picked up 36.1 inches of snow. Many places in Wisconsin and Minnesota saw 1-2 feet of snow.
Bitter cold temperatures were more widespread. Billings, Mont., saw a high of 60 degrees this week. It was 4 degrees Wednesday morning. Oklahoma City, sunning itself in 70 degrees a couple days ago, shivered at 22 degrees Wednesday.
Good morning, Casper, Wyoming -- residents awoke to 25 degrees below zero. Wind chills dropped deep into negative numbers in some spots early Wednesday — low enough to cause frostbite in 10 minutes.
Temperatures will only make it into the single digits, teens and 20s across much of the north-central U.S., the National Weather Service said.
Temperatures Wednesday morning had dipped to the 40s as far south as southern Texas.
Weather service meteorologist Paul Kocin said the cold air was targeting the Appalachians to mid-South on Wednesday before rolling to the East Coast by Thursday morning. The East Coast will see cooler temperatures but be spared from the dramatic lows in the middle of the country, Kocin said.
At least two people were killed in Minnesota on icy roads, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
"It's really bad," said Jonie Magnant, who works at a Walgreens in Marquette, said Tuesday. "There are thick, whiteout conditions," she said.
Top snowfalls in other states included 26 inches in Gile, Wis.; 16.5 inches in Cambridge and St. Augusta, Minn., and 14 inches in Whitefish, Mont.
St. Cloud, Minn., got 13.2 inches of snow Monday, breaking the all-time November calendar-day record of 12 inches set on Nov. 21, 1898.
Looking ahead, light snow is possible on Saturday across the Plains, Kines said, with states such as Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas seeing 2-4 inches. That same system could then bring snow to portions of the East by late Sunday and into Monday, he said, primarily in interior areas away from the big cities of the I-95 corridor.
Contributing: David Lim, Paste BN; St. Cloud Times; KARE-TV; The Associated Press