A brutally cold air mass is coming. How chilly will it get in your region?
More than two dozen states may experience temperatures in the single digits or lower.


A man shovels snow in Ankeny, Iowa, on Jan. 12. A cold air mass is making its way over the United States this week. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

By Ben Noll
Updated November 26, 2024 at 9:57 a.m. EST | Published November 26, 2024 at 9:40 a.m. EST

The weirdly warm November weather will soon come to a crashing end, thanks to an air mass moving from the Laptev Sea north of Russia — over 4,000 miles away from the U.S. East Coast, where its journey will end this weekend.

It may seem like an uninvited post-holiday guest. But when much of the eastern two-thirds of the United States has been 5 to 10 degrees warmer than average this month, it may be greeted with arms wide open. And this polar plunge has no intention of departing any time soon.

It’s expected to stick around into mid-December, sparing no state east of the Rocky Mountains from an unusual chill, to varying degrees.

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By Ben Noll
Ben Noll is a meteorologist with a passion for communicating extreme weather and climate trends. He has experience working with data and creating weather graphics on a supercomputer, developing meteorological services in the Pacific Islands, and short, medium, and long-range weather prediction.follow on X @BenNollWeather