No Relief From Cold Anytime Soon

As if the Thanksgiving blast of cold air wasn’t enough, an even colder shot of arctic air will dive into the country later this week smashing daily cold records from the Midwest to the Northeast.

Dozens Of Records Could Fall

We could see several dozen daily record lows across more than a dozen states Thursday and Friday morning. These stretch from the Plains and Midwest to the Northeast. Places like Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa, as well as La Crosse, Wisconsin, could all break record morning lows.

We are talking not just temperatures below freezing, but below zero. A pretty significant chunk of the Midwest and Northern Plains will wake up Thursday morning below zero. Some lows in parts of Iowa could be in the teens below zero Thursday morning.

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Thursday afternoon won’t offer much warmth either. More than a dozen record cold high temperatures could be felt from Missouri to Michigan, with teens or low 20s as warm as it gets.

Here’s a map where the daily records may fall.

Timing The Arctic Blast

This next round of cold will begin arriving in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest on Wednesday. Highs across portions of North Dakota and northern Minnesota will only make it to the single digits.

Thursday: Thursday morning, the big freeze will dive down as far south as Oklahoma. Morning lows will plunge below zero for a wide swath of the upper Midwest and Northern Plains. Even Iowa and eastern Nebraska will feel the bitter cold, subzero temperatures.

Meanwhile, places as far south as the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and the Ohio Valley will bottom out in the 20s.

Afternoon temperatures won’t help much as temperatures will stay below freezing for millions Thursday afternoon. Temperatures across portions of the Midwest will run 15-25 degrees below average. Even places as far south as Oklahoma City will struggle to make it above freezing.

Friday: Friday morning the cold dips even further south and east. Lows in the single digits and teens will be common across the Great Lakes to New England, including the Boston metro.

Lows near 20 degrees are expected in New York City and Philly, and 30s are expected in the South from northern Texas to Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia.

The Northeast will struggle to make it much above freezing Friday afternoon. While the Midwest and Plains begin to warm up a tad, temperatures will still only be in the 20s for afternoon highs in most of the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi Valley.

Will There Be Any Snow?

I’m glad you asked! This front will be on the drier side, however, there will be a little snow possible for the extreme northern tier of the country ahead of the cold front for parts of the Midwest, Ohio Valley and interior portions of the Northeast. Most areas outside the Great Lakes snowbelts shouldn't pick up more than a dusting from this.

The first full week of meteorological winter is here, living up to its name.

Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.