Midwest Cold as Much as 30 Degrees Below Normal

Overnight temperatures dropped to at least freezing across most of the nation Wednesday, and the upper Midwest braced for temperatures on the first day of winter as low as 40 below zero.

“This is just about as bad as it can get in Iowa,” National Weather Service forecaster Scott Truett said in Des Moines. “Normally, the coldest weather of the year occurs in January and February. We are way below normal.”

Temperatures have been running 20 degrees to 30 degrees below normal across the state, with similar differences elsewhere.

Snow fell Wednesday from the northern Rockies across the northern plains and around the Great Lakes, where “lake effect” snow fed by the moisture of the lakes piled up 4-foot drifts in western New York state.

The weather service’s official low temperature for the Lower 48 states Wednesday was 34 degrees below zero at International Falls and Warroad, Minn., both on the Canadian border. The high Wednesday at International Falls was 21 degrees below zero.

Overnight temperatures reached 32 degrees or lower in southern North Carolina, western South Carolina, northern Georgia, northern Alabama, northern Mississippi, much of Louisiana, the northern two-thirds of Texas, New Mexico and the northeastern two-thirds of Arizona, the weather service said.

Residents of North Dakota were warned Wednesday to prepare for temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero, with northwesterly winds blowing at 15 to 25 m.p.h.

Similar readings were forecast in Wisconsin, and some schools closed to avoid having children waiting outside for buses. Some schools had frozen water pipes.

The temperature at noon at Eagle River, Wis., was 15 below and it was windy, school spokesman Ken Johnson said. “It is a long way from a blizzard, but if you are not behind a windbreak, it’s cold,” he said.