Across the country, a cold blast of polar air is plunging deep into the southern U.S., impacting hundreds of millions of people. It's the same system that brought us snow showers Monday, and single digits and teens for lows this morning.
A vast majority of the central U.S. felt winter's chill this morning, with record lows from Wisconsin to Texas. In Minnesota, the town of Cotton saw a low of 16 degrees below zero this morning, the coldest in the nation. Cedar Rapids and Des Moines both started the day below zero, establishing new records during the current cold snap. Chicago O'Hare also set a record this morning, with a low of 7 degrees.
As the cold air plunges south, more records will be possible down into the Gulf Coast states, even as far as south as the Florida Panhandle.
Lows tonight will drop down to the single digits in Chicago, the teens in Memphis and Cincinnati, and the 20s in Atlanta and Dallas.
Hundreds of locations could set new records on Wednesday.
Even as the sun comes up, high temperatures will remain cold for mid-November standards from the south up through the northeast. A warm-up follows for the northeast late this week.
