MINNEAPOLIS — A weather expert says bitter cold as bad or worse than the 2014 polar vortex outbreak is coming to North America next week, as frigid air escapes the Arctic in two icy excursions into Canada and the continental United States.
Colder air will filter into central Ohio Tuesday through midweek,
with lows below zero expected Tuesday night and Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service.
A Wind Chill Watch will be in effect from Tuesday evening through Thursday afternoon in much of the state, where wind chills between 25 and 35 below zero are possible, with the coldest wind chills as low as 40 below zero possible Wednesday morning.
Meteorologist Ryan Maue says some forecasters have nicknamed the frigid invasion of cold air “Barney” because computer forecast models show the cold air as chubby purple blobs.
He calls it “a textbook case of an Arctic outbreak” and says the first bite of cold air will hit northern Michigan and bring extreme cold to Ontario, while the second will spin south over the Midwest and through the Great Lakes.
Maue predicts that overnight lows will dip as low as minus 25 degrees from Minneapolis to Chicago, with much worse wind chills.