Americans across a large portion of the Northeast are bracing for an unusually late-season blast of Arctic air courtesy of the polar vortex this weekend. Adding to the frigid conditions will be accumulating snowfall, another rarity for some places across the region this time of year.
Freeze watches and warnings have been issued in many places. And cities from Atlanta to Detroit to New York to Boston will be colder than parts of Alaska this weekend. Pittsburgh, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Buffalo will challenge low-temperature records.
Meanwhile, Fairbanks, Alaska, will approach 80 degrees Fahrenheit on Mother’s Day, which is about 20 degrees above normal. Farther south in The Last Frontier, it will be cooler in Anchorage over the weekend, but with temperatures in the low 60s, highs will still be about 4-5 degrees above average — and higher than some places in the Northeast.
Not only will the frosty weather be more conducive to social distancing across the region than last week’s pattern was, accumulating snowfall will stretch across a swath as far south as West Virginia and extend through interior portions of the Northeast up into New England, where some places could pick up a foot of snow or more.
“A lobe of the polar vortex will spin southward and loop around the Great Lakes and northeastern United States into next week before shifting farther northwest over Canada toward the middle of May,” Paul Pastelok, AccuWeather’s top long-range forecaster, explained.
As the jet stream plunges across the eastern U.S., allowing the unusually cold weather to press southward, it is bulging northward in the West. An oppressive heat wave is affecting L.A., Phoenix and Las Vegas as warmth builds across the Pacific Northwest and up toward Alaska.
“What a pattern across the United States! Look at that big jet stream across the eastern U.S. Meanwhile, in the West, it’s totally opposite, polar opposite, where we’re looking at record warmth … It will be warmer in Alaska than it will be in Atlanta, Georgia. That’s something,” AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.
