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The Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain in Midtown, New York, has begun to freeze over due to the cold
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February 12, 2016 - U.S. NORTHEAST - Love birds planning to spend their Valentine's Day outdoors will have to bundle up, as it will likely be the coldest one on record for much of the Northeast.
Temperatures will dip so low, it will be too cold in New York City for the annual Central Park Ice Festival.
The Central Park Conservancy says Saturday's event has been canceled due to the weekend's major arctic outbreak, which could bring sub-zero temperatures as 20 states in the Midwest and the Northeast brace for possibly 'life-threatening' wind chills, according to The Weather Channel.
In the eastern half of the country, a dip in the jet stream is making way for an arctic air mass to drop in from Canada, causing temperatures to plunge below zero, with wind chills of 20 to 30 degrees below zero.
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Jacob Donahue, 34, (pictured) cleans snow from his car before going to work on Friday in Erie, Pennsylvania
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Shar Horton, of Syracuse, scrapes ice from the windows of her car visiting a friend in Utica, NY, on Thursday
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A woman walks down the street in New Bedford, Massachusetts on Monday during a snowstorm
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NORTH EAST: A snow storm in Philadelphia on Wednesday sent a utility pole crashing down on a highway
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Firefighters from the Erie,
Pennsylvania, Bureau of Fire prepare to leave the scene after checking
on the occupants of a sedan
that spun out in snowy conditions on Wednesday on the Interstate 79 northbound |
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Vehicles make their way through
downtown New Bedford on Monday as the second winter storm in four days
to hit the Northeast is expected to bring blizzard
conditions to Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts and leave behind as much as 18 inches of snow |
Across New England, wind chills of 20 to 40 degrees below zero are expected.
The arctic blast begins today when temperatures in the Midwest will plunge below zero and stay there until President's Day, according to forecasts.
As the weekend arrives, the arctic blast will head east causing temperatures to drop at least 30 degrees below normal, ABC News reported.
On Saturday, record-cold is possible across the Great Lakes region - which includes parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota - as temperatures in the afternoon remain in the single digits and the teens throughout most of the day.
Lake-effect snow could be triggered in the Great Lakes area, which comes when moisture in warmer lake waters mixes with cold air from the north, causing upward of two to three inches of snow an hour, according to CNN.
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The North East begins its Arctic plunge as temperatures sink in to the 20s in New York City and Boston
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| The country is still cold tomorrow, with New York City getting as cold as 4 degrees and parts of the North East going in to the negatives |
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One of the coldest Valentine's days ever with frosty temperatures in North East on Sunday
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The West Coast is currently
enjoying a warm blast blowing up from the southern hemisphere, and the
East Coast is getting
hit by a cold blast coming down from Canada. But by Monday, both jet streams will break down |
'Depending on where you are, if you're just south or north of this lake-effect, it can look like a wall of snow is coming down,' CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said.
And in New York City, a 100-year-old record could be broken if temperatures drop below two degrees.
In Buffalo, New York, a record-low maximum temperature of zero degrees is forecasted for Saturday afternoon with the record being five degrees, set back in 1899.
As a polar vortex is set to hit the East Coast, Midwest, and South next week following the arctic blast - the force of the downward icy blast, offset by the intense warm blast surging up the West Coast, has the potential to pull moisture up from the Gulf of Mexico.
It means snow and ice will likely batter vast swathes of the country east of California on President's Day and beyond.
Meanwhile, a midwinter heat wave is smashing records in California.
Temperatures on the southern West Coast rocketed into the 90s for the second consecutive day on Tuesday even as the warming Santa Ana winds that came in on Saturday began to fade.
Forecasters said strong high pressure will continue through the week, keeping afternoon temperatures well above normal until at least Valentine's Day on Sunday.
On the other side of the country, the romantic occasion will be a freezing one as snow persists and temperatures plummet to their worst of the winter.
New York City is set to see wind chills of -15 degrees on Sunday morning.
On a positive note for heat-seekers in the Midwest and North East, the worst of the winter cold is expected to subside as of Monday, according to the Weather Channel.
The site explains that the West Coast is currently enjoying a warm blast blowing up from the southern hemisphere, and the East Coast is getting hit by a cold blast coming down from Canada.
But by Monday afternoon, both jet streams will break down, the Weather Channel says.
As a result, winds around the North Pole will get stronger, containing the Arctic air - leading to a thaw on the East Coast for the rest of February.
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Homeowners in Scranton,
Pennsylvania, awoke to find their homes covered in ice yesterday after a
pipe burst
overnight spraying water up to 20ft in the air in freezing temperatures |
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| Icicles were left dangling from tree branches and power lines while the
sidewalk and properties were covered with a thick layer of ice before crews could shut the water off at around 3pm yesterday |
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Contractor Stephen Sunder
attempts to chip ice off of the steps leading up to a home that froze
after a water main burst,
but it may be days before the rest of the property thaws out |
For now, however, East and West Coasters should be braced for a week of extremes.
By Tuesday afternoon on the southern West Coast, there were numerous readings in the 90s throughout the region.
Downtown Los Angeles topped out at 89 degrees, beating the old February 9 record by four degrees. The high was 21 degrees above normal for the date, the National Weather Service said.
Other records were set or tied in Long Beach, where it reached 92 degrees, Santa Barbara, Camarillo and at Los Angeles International Airport.
Unseasonable warmth began building over the weekend as high pressure set into the Great Basin, sending air flowing toward Southern California.
The gusty, dry Santa Ana winds form as air descends through mountain passes and canyons, warming through compression and pushing out to sea.
Red flag warnings for wildfire danger that were posted on Monday were not reissued on Tuesday as the winds subsided.
Mountains and some inland valleys were expected to see a bit of relief on Wednesday, but not coastal areas.
Cloudiness will lower Saturday temperatures five to 10 degrees, but the high pressure ridge will quickly reform and make next week almost as warm, forecasters said.
While Northern California has received a steady series of winter storms that have built a substantial snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, Southern California has yet to see the kind of extended rains sometimes produced by the El Nino warming phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean.
Downtown Los Angeles has recorded only about half the 8.28 inches of rain normally received seasonally to date.
Across the country, snow has already dusted the Midwest and North East on Wednesday.
On Saturday morning, the subzero chills will spread to Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, eastern Nebraska, and eastern Kansas.
By Sunday morning, subzero temperatures could hit southern New England, the suburbs of New York City and Philadelphia. - Daily Mail.
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