Hundreds of records could fall in next week’s cold snap

The Arctic blast engulfing the eastern half of the Lower 48 will make mid-November feel like mid-January. Between Sunday and Wednesday, temperatures will sink to levels 15 to 30 degrees colder than normal from the Plains to the East Coast.

The National Weather Service is predicting that about 250 cold records will be established as a result of this polar plunge, from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.

Next week’s cold is the second and stronger of back-toback Arctic fronts sweeping across the nation.

The first front raced from the Midwest to the East Coast between Wednesday and Friday this week. It caused temperatures to drop 15 to 20 degrees in 24 hours along the Eastern Seaboard between Thursday and Friday morning and supported the season’s first snow flurries in Washington, D.C.

But temperatures are poised to take an even deeper dive as the second front invades.

The cold front will drop into the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest tonight into Sunday, passing through Minneapolis

and Chicago.

On Monday morning, the front will have rapidly progressed eastward, stretching from interior New England southwest to Texas, having sliced through Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, St. Louis and Oklahoma City.

By Tuesday morning, it will have reached the East Coast, having passed through all but southeast South Carolina and Florida, which it will cross by Wednesday morning.

On Monday, when the core of the cold grips the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes, Minneapolis will not escape the high teens while Chicago hovers in the 20s.

Both cities are likely to see their coldest Veterans Day on record.