After a rare "unseasonal warmth" at the beginning of January, when a series of temperature records were broken, the United States is preparing to enter a completely opposite period. The weather pattern that once caused severe cold in the Midwest and Eastern United States last month is re-establishing. Arctic cold air waves will continuously pour down, completely ending the recent "warm January" phenomenon.
The first cold spell is expected to touch the East Coast from January 16, causing temperatures to drop deeply by about 5-11 degrees Celsius compared to the multi-year average.
In Washington D.C., the highest temperature of the day may hardly exceed 0 degrees Celsius. In Florida - a place that rarely faces cold - frost warnings have been issued, with the possibility of recording a record low of about -2 degrees Celsius in Lakeland, eastern Tampa, on the morning of January 16.
Not stopping there, a second cold air mass will fall at the end of the week, before the third - considered the strongest - appears next week. This mass could cause about 40 million people, from Minnesota to Maine, to endure temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius on a large scale.
In the Upper Midwest region, nighttime temperatures can drop to -23 to -29 degrees Celsius, even -34 degrees Celsius in the coldest scenario.
These cold spells are forecast to last until the end of January and even combine with humidity, increasing the risk of forming 1 or 2 strong winter storms at the end of the month.
Cold air comes with widespread snowfall. From midweek, snow begins to cover the Great Lakes, Appalachia, western and central New York, and northern New England.
By the end of the week and early next week, snow will continue to appear in the Midwest and East, but meteorologists say there are no signs of a major snowstorm forming.
The polar vortex from the end of November, instead of recovering and "stuck" firmly in the Arctic region, has shifted southward to Canada, often paving the way for Arctic cold air to flood into the northern United States.
However, the polar vortex does not make it cold everywhere. When it slides south, other areas warm up abnormally. Greenland, northeastern Russia and the Aleutian Islands of Alaska are experiencing a rare warm winter.
In Kullorsuaq, a settlement in western Greenland, winter temperatures are about 13 degrees Celsius higher than the average, the largest standard deviation recorded in the Northern Hemisphere.
Although extreme cyclones continuously appear in weather forecasts, this winter is generally not as cold as many people imagine. On the contrary, the United States is experiencing one of the warmest winters in history, because the overheating of the West has "compensated" for the cold in the Midwest and Northeast.
