By AccuWeather senior meteorologist
While the first official day of spring is just two weeks away, Mother Nature is still dishing out wintry weather for portions of the country. Forecasters say a dramatic change is on the way this week as temperatures could plunge to levels more typical of the middle of winter.
Cold air is first expected to settle into the northern Plains midweek. By Thursday afternoon, temperatures are forecast to be as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit below normal for mid-March.
A high temperature of 19 is expected on Thursday in Minneapolis, where the normal high temperature is 37. Meanwhile Fargo, North Dakota, is expected to hit 14, where the normal high temperature is 33.
Temperatures have averaged below normal in these cities so far in March. After the first five days of the month, Fargo was running 3.5 F degrees below normal.
For some other locations, this wave of cold will be a shock to the system. In Sioux Falls and Rapid City, South Dakota, temperatures soared to 20 degrees above normal at the start of March. Afternoon temperatures are forecast to swing to almost 20 degrees below normal by Thursday.
While cold, dry conditions settle into this area of the country, a storm is expected to ride along the southern extent of the cold, spreading snow from the Rockies into the Midwest.
While the highest snowfall totals are likely to occur in the elevations of the Rockies, several inches of snow may extend across South Dakota and Nebraska into Iowa, southern Minnesota and Wisconsin into Thursday. This swath of snow could make for slippery travel across portions of Interstate 80, including in Des Moines where residents are cleaning up following tornadoes that brought devastation to the community less than a week prior.
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Even colder conditions are expected to settle into this zone at the end of the week.
"Clearing skies will likely accompany the cold air moving in from Canada, further dropping temperatures on Thursday night. By Friday morning, some locales across the North Central states could be flirting with record low temperatures," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham.
Temperatures Friday morning are forecast to be the single digits in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Omaha, Nebraska, and Minneapolis, while cities like Denver and Fargo, North Dakota, could all be below zero. Low temperatures in northern High Plains and just east of the front range can lower to 5-10 below zero. Temperatures of this magnitude are more typical of January.
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AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said the midweek snowstorm is likely to help these temperatures come to fruition.
"If snow is able to lay on the ground, then these departures listed will occur with higher confidence," Pastelok said.
The anomalously cold air is also expected to be farther reaching with this late-week blast.
"By early Saturday morning, freezing temperatures can reach Northwest Texas, including Dallas," said Pastelok. Some cities like Amarillo, Texas, and Oklahoma City could dip down into the teens late in the week.
The cold air is forecast to shift eastward this coming weekend, behind a potent storm. "While it may not be quite as extreme as what we expect across the northern Rockies and Plains, temperatures 10-20 degrees below average are entirely possible," Buckingham said.
AccuWeather meteorologists say that the jet stream diving southward and another storm that could bring more snow snow to the eastern U.S. is expected to help transport that cold farther south and east.
Good news is likely on the way for those who dislike the cold. The eastern half of the U.S. is forecast to experience moderating temperatures by next week, erasing the extreme cold.
"This will be a significant cold shot but brief as a warm up is expected to follow into the following week for the Plains on East," Pastelok said.
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