Important Takeaways:

• Dozens of US states will endure the lowest temperatures they have felt in years as a polar vortex brings ‘life-threatening’ cold next week
• The National Weather Service (NWS) said that much of the Lower 48 should brace for ‘the coldest air-mass of the season to date’ from Friday to January 24.
• Meteorologists predict temperatures could plunge up to 45 degrees below average, engulfing at least 20 states across the Plains, the Great Lakes and the interior Northeast in below-zero temperatures.
• States in the polar vortex path include Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming.
• Parts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Utah and Idaho could also experience below-zero temperatures.
• The Rockies, northern Plains, and Upper Midwest should see minimum wind chills of -30 F or colder Saturday into Tuesday, according to the NWS.
• The freezing temperatures will likely freeze and burst pipes and significantly strain power grids as people scramble to heat their homes.
• ‘This poses a great risk of hypothermia and frostbite to exposed skin. Have a cold weather survival kit if traveling,’ the agency warned.
• Snow and slippery roads are also set to hit the mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Sunday, with a wintery mix potentially in the Deep South early next week.
• Even states along the Gulf Coast and the southern border will see temperatures drop 10 to 30 F below average. Only South Florida will be spared from the bitter cold.

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