Five things to know about the Arctic blast, winter storms hitting U.S.

At least 30 states are under some type of alert for dangerously cold temperatures, whether in the form of wind chill advisories or warnings. On the periphery of the cold, waves of moisture have been falling as snow, sleet and freezing rain, forcing school and office closures and disrupting air travel. One winter storm just plastered much of the East Coast with a plowable snowfall and garnish of ice, grinding air travel to a halt in some places, with another winter storm gathering gumption in the Pacific Northwest.

It looks like a reinforcing cold shot is already arriving now, but will eventually be replaced by milder air early next week. Until then, much of North America is caught in the throes of Old Man Winter — and more wintry weather is on the way.

Here are five things to know about the cold and snow:

1. The cold is setting records across the country

Temperatures some 30 to 50 degrees below normal have surged all the way to the Gulf Coast. The coldest air is found near the U.S.-Canada border and is bleeding all the way to the East Coast.

• Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport hit 19 degrees on Tuesday morning; Hobby Airport hit 21. Both nabbed records by 3 or 4 degrees. Average lows this time of year are closer to the mid-40s.
• On Jan. 15, San Antonio, Austin-Bergstrom, and Austin-Camp Mabry set record low maximum temperatures by margins of 10 degrees or greater. Austin, for example, has an average mid-January high of 62 degrees, but set an actual high of only 24. The previous record was 34 set in 1917.
• Dallas hasn’t climbed above freezing since the Arctic front came through around 5 p.m. on Saturday. Since then, the Metroplex got down to 11 degrees on Monday morning and 12 to start the day Tuesday.
• Oklahoma City had a morning low of 1 degree on Sunday and a maximum of just 8. That set a record for the coldest daily maximum temperature for the date. They also hit 1 degrees on Monday morning and got down to 4 degrees to start Tuesday.
• In Arkansas, North Little Rock had a low temperature of just 6 degrees Monday morning, beating the previous record of 11. It also hit a daytime high of just 16 degrees; the previous record was 28. Downtown Little Rock set a record low maximum temperature of 20 degrees, and the Air Force base got down to just 8 degrees, setting a low temperature record.
• Kansas City hasn’t been above 2 degrees since 1 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday featured a high of minus-3, and Monday just 2 degrees. Both were record cold maximum temperatures for the dates. Monday morning’s low was minus-12, and Tuesday morning’s was minus-16; both were daily records.
• Denver International Airport got down to minus-19 on Tuesday morning, tying a record set in 1930. On Monday night, the airport’s temperature dropped by 9 degrees in 5 minutes. Wind chills were around minus-34 at the time.
• In Minneapolis, it’s just been cold, but not record cold. Daily highs have been in the single digits above zero, with lows in the single digits below zero. The same is true for Chicago despite the city getting down to minus-10 on Sunday night.
• Wind chills of minus-40 and air temperatures in the minus-20s have been common across the Dakotas and Montana.

Johnny Parker, a meteorologist in Mississippi, noted Tuesday morning that Holly Springs, Miss., and the North Pole were the same temperature for a time — 11 degrees.

2. It’s dangerously cold, even in Florida

The Arctic front has reached Florida. It squeezed out a tornado southeast of Port St. Lucie on Monday afternoon. Now the cold has invaded the Sunshine State.

Wind chills will reach as low as 20 degrees on Wednesday morning on west central portions of the Peninsula and 10 degrees in the Panhandle.

“The cold wind chills could result in hypothermia if precautions are not taken,” wrote the National Weather Service. Florida has the third-greatest number of homeless individuals of any state or territory in the United States.

3. The snow drought ended in Washington, D.C.

An inch of snow may not sound like much, but the nation’s capital went 727 days without getting a single one-inch snowstorm. That streak ended on Monday night, when overachieving snows amounted to 1.8 inches at D.C.’s Reagan National Airport by 7 p.m. By Tuesday morning, 4.1 inches were on the ground. Flights were grounded, and inbound aircraft were diverted to Philadelphia or Raleigh, and many passengers were stuck on the tarmac for hours.

As of Tuesday morning, Adams Morgan in Washington, D.C., had 3 inches, downtown D.C. had 4, BWI Airport in Baltimore was up to 4.9 inches and Columbia, Md., had 5.8 inches.

Winter storm warnings were issued around 10:30 p.m. Monday night to account for the snowfall, which doubled initial expectations of 1 to 3 inches.

The same system delivered a general 2-to-4 inch snowfall for most of the northern Mid-Atlantic, New York City Tri-State and southeast New England inside of Interstate 95, also ending record long snow droughts in New York City and Philadelphia.

A map from the National Weather Service showed a strip of significant snowfall from Tennessee to to Maine.

4. Lake-effect snows are hammering Buffalo

Remember the storm that hit the Midwest over the weekend? It even produced thundersnow in Chicago! Behind it, cold westerly winds blew down the lengths of Lakes Erie and Ontario, picking up moisture from the warm waters below and causing blinding lake-effect snows.

Buffalo Airport had just shy of 11 inches, but nearby West Seneca had 37. Hamburg, N.Y., was up to 41.3 inches. Orchard Park, where the Buffalo Bills play, had about a foot and a half. Sunday’s Steelers vs. Bills game was postponed due to the inclement weather.

Winds gusted as high as 64 mph in Buffalo. At times, the snow fell so heavily in the strong winds that visibilities got down to just 0.06 miles.

The lake-effect snows will continue. Off Lake Erie, they’ll wind down early Wednesday, with another 5 to 10 inches expected. For Lake Ontario, the Tug Hill Plateau could continue seeing snow bands through Thursday, with 1 to 3 feet of additional accumulation anticipated.

5. The Pacific Northwest is getting snow and ice

Ice storm warnings are up in northwestern Oregon and southwest Washington, where up to a half-inch of ice accretion, or layered accumulation, is expected. That’s because of overrunning, or warm, moist air riding up and over cool, dense air. Liquid rain falls into a subfreezing layer and freezes on the ground, coating the surface in a dangerous glaze of ice.

The same system will dump heavy snows in the mountains, with up to 20 inches in the Blue Mountains and up to 40 in the Cascades. The snows will push east into the Columbia River Basin and eventually Montana by Thursday.

What comes next?

The winter storm in the Northeast will exit as a new one continues to sock the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures will remain frigid over the eastern and central United States late in the week and into the weekend.

The cold, however, will finally begin to wane early next week over the central states. Arctic high pressure, which has settled over the nation’s heartland, will weaken and push east. Since highs spin clockwise, that will bring a more southerly flow to the Plains, scouring out the cold and allowing a gradual warm-up.

The overarching weather pattern does look more tranquil into late January once the frigid air escapes.