Beginning Tuesday, much of the great plains will plunge into frigid winter-like temperatures 20 to 30 degrees below normal.
Highs from 10 to as much as 40 degrees below average will drive into the plains, western Great Lakes, upper and mid-Mississippi valleys. A northerly wind will keep highs in the upper 20s to upper 30s for most of the week.
“At 3 p.m. CST…A cold front extended westward … across the central plains and into the Northern Rockies,” said the National Weather Service in a special weather statement, “A warm front extends eastward across the upper Midwest. North of this boundary an arctic air mass was spreading southward across the northern Rockies, northern plains and upper midwest/Great Lakes.”
No precipitation is expected through Thursday, but temperatures are expected to continue dropping throughout the week.
The onslaught will be fueled in part by remnants of Typhoon Nuri, which struck Alaska’s Aleutian Islands with hurricane-force winds and 50-foot waves over the weekend.