Expansive blast of bitterly cold air to penetrate US this week

By Jake Sojda, AccuWeather meteorologist

Updated Oct. 29, 2019 2:56 PM

Following rounds of snow and rain across the Rockies and Plains, a bitter blast of Arctic air will expand over the region.

Residents throughout the Mountain West and Plains will want to be armed with several layers of warm clothing to combat the cold over the coming days.

The Arctic air has already enveloped much of the northern and central Rockies. Temperatures Tuesday morning plummeted into the teens and single digits F from central and eastern Idaho through Montana, Wyoming and portions of northern Colorado and northwestern Plains.

AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures plunged well below zero in most of these same areas as a bone-chilling breeze combined made it feel even colder than actual readings. Cheyenne, Wyoming, for instance, felt RealFeel Temperatures ranging from minus 20 to 25 F on Tuesday morning.

At these temperatures, frostbite can begin in as little as 30 minutes on exposed skin.

The cold will expand farther south and eastward through the West and Plains through Thursday morning. During Wednesday, temperatures through much of the central Rockies will be 20 to 40 degrees below normal for the end of October.

Record lows will be challenged Wednesday morning in many locations across the central Rockies into the High Plains. The old record low of 2 will be challenged in Rapid City, South Dakota, while the record low of minus 3 will be challenged in Casper, Wyoming.

Realfeel Temperatures will again spend much of the time in the single digits to teens below zero early Wednesday morning across the Rockies and western High Plains.

Even by mid-winter standards, the cold will be extreme across much of Colorado and Wyoming through midweek. For example, normal high temperatures in January for Denver and Colorado Springs are in the lower 40s. High temperatures in both locations Wednesday will struggle to reach 20 degrees.

While the core of the cold will be centered across the Rockies, a huge area of nation from the Plains to the Midwest will not escape a shot of frigid air.

By Wednesday morning places as far south and east as Amarillo, Texas, to Omaha, Nebraska, and Fargo, North Dakota, will be gripped by RealFeel Temperatures in the teens, with RealFeel Temperatures in the in single digits farther across the High Plains.

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The cold will be even more expansive Thursday morning. RealFeel Temperatures in the teens and 20s will greet early morning commuters from Chicago to St. Louis to San Antonio as they head out to start the day Thursday.

Even residents along the Texas Gulf coast will feel the chill Thursday morning as temperatures in the 40s and upper 30s, combined with a gusty breeze, create RealFeel Temperatures ranging from the lower 30s to mid-20s.

Records will be challenged again Thursday morning as the core of the cold shifts farther south through the Rockies and Plains. Dallas may fall below freezing for the first time since March 6.

While the bitterly cold air will ease farther south by later in the day Thursday as trick-or-treaters head out for Halloween, cold weather will remain entrenched farther north from the northern Plains into the Great Lakes into Friday.

Another storm system tracking through southern Canada may deliver another reinforcing shot of extreme cold and wind focused farther east, in the Great Lakes, for the weekend.

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