Polar Vortex Winter 2016: Predictions For Coldest, Freezing Weather Temperatures, Snow, Wind Across US

This year’s polar vortex is in full swing, pummeling swaths of the United States with heavy snow and bitter cold. Some areas were expected to break records Saturday and Sunday as temperatures were plunging across the country.

The National Weather Service issued winter weather advisories and hazardous weather outlooks for a number of areas from southwestern Idaho to the tip of Maine. An estimated 40 million people were placed under wind chill advisories or warnings and almost 80 percent of the country was expecting to see below freezing temperatures in the following days.

Syracuse, New York, broke a 99-year record when temperatures at Hancock International Airport hit 2 below zero Friday. The previous record was set in 1917 when temperatures hit 1 below zero.

Indiana saw the coldest temperatures in 11 months, as thermometers recorded zero degrees in the town of Peru Friday morning, according to local Fox 59. In the panhandle of Texas, where the weather typically stays mild, temperatures hit below freezing with a wind chill that made it feel like the upper teens Thursday and Friday.

The Chicago Bears are expected to play in the coldest weather they’ve ever had to endure Sunday when they face off against the Green Bay Packers at Chicago’s Soldier Field. The temperature there is forecast to hit 1 below zero.

Wind gusts in Massachusetts could clock in at up to 60 mph. Temperatures from Washington, D.C., to Boston were expected to stay below 20 degrees.

The National Weather Service warned that North and South Dakota could see life-threatening temperatures Friday through Saturday morning. A snowstorm more than a thousand miles long was forecast to hit Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo and Syracuse this weekend.

The polar vortex responsible for the debilitating temperatures made its way down to the U.S. from the Arctic. Though the term has only recently been made popular, the vortex has always existed and often makes its way south when it expands in winter.