Deep freeze to continue beyond New Year’s Eve

Central Ohioans will ring in the New Year with a

The forecast calls for a midnight temperature of about 5 degrees in Columbus, with the thermometer flirting with zero by daybreak Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

While well below normal, the temperature isn’t likely to reach the record low of -6 that Columbus registered on New Year’s Day 1968, said Brian Haines, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Wilmington office.

Monday’s high temperature is expected to be around 12 as central Ohio continues a deep freeze that is likely to last another week.

“We’re looking at below-normal temperatures into the next work week,” with lows in the single digits and highs in the teens, Haines said.

The culprit is a weather pattern dumping arctic air from Canada into the Midwest and Northeast United States, he said.

The National Weather Service predicts that the front will bring frigid temperatures to much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation through the weekend and into 2018. Temperatures could fall into the single digits as far south as Oklahoma.

The good news for central Ohio’s New Year’s forecast is that no snow is expected, after Columbus received 3.5 inches from Friday evening to Saturday morning.

The normal temperature range for early January in Columbus is highs in the upper 30s and lows in the lower 20s.