After parts of the Northeast saw a top 10 coldest two-week period to end January, the region cannot seem to catch a break.
The active pattern that has set up across the Eastern U.S. will continue to bring in reinforcing shots of bitterly cold arctic air. The next delivery of fresh frigid air will arrive this weekend behind a cold front.
Ahead of the cold front, high temperatures may rise slightly above freezing for a day or so. That may not sound warm, but to New Yorkers, this is exciting news.
NYC finally broke its nine-day streak of at-or-below freezing temperatures on Monday, as its high hit 35 degrees.
Washington D.C. also saw 9 consecutive days at or below freezing, which was the 6th longest stretch for the city and the longest stretch since 1989.
The bitter cold settles in this weekend. Dozens of daily record cold highs will be in jeopardy both on Saturday and Sunday. These records are hard to accomplish during the coldest time of the year, but we keep seeing repeated rounds of record cold.
Here are the latest forecast highs for the Northeast.
Gusty north to northwest winds will add to the misery, as wind chills plunge below zero once again both Saturday and Sunday.
Any Relief Coming?
Some milder, or at least less cold, air is coming to the East, but it may take until late next week to arrive. Meanwhile, the cooler air will be swapping coasts to the West Coast.
Recap Of The 2026 Cold So Far
This year has started off quite chilly for parts of the East.
In mid-January, a system brought rare southern snow to parts of Alabama, Georgia and the Florida panhandle.
Next up wasWinter Storm Fern. This was a significant storm that brought bitter cold, ice, snow, rain and sleet to millions. Some communities are stillwithout power.
Just one week after Winter Storm Fern, we were trackingWinter Storm Gianna, which brought even more snow, cold air and gusty winds to the Southeast.
(RECAPS:Winter Storm Fern Recap|Winter Storm Gianna)
And with each winter storm came those dreaded arctic blasts. Fortunately, this latest cold air will not surge as deep into the South.
A Silver Lining From The Cold
With the ongoing bitter cold streak for the Northeast, that cold air often moves over the Great Lakes to get to the region.
As a result, the lakes are freezing, with Lake Erie nearly 100% frozen over:
Lake Erie is the shallowest lake, so it freezing over is not uncommon. However, this does impact lake-effect snow.
In order to have powerful lake-effect snow bands, bitter cold air is needed to move over the relatively warmer waters of the Great Lakes.
(MORE:Lake-Effect Snow)
So, places like Buffalo may only be see snowfall from low-pressure systems for the time being.
That is good, because the city has seen over 60 inches of snowfall since December, about 10 inches above average.
Tiffany Savonais a meteorologist for weather.com with more than 15 years of experience in forecasting the weather across the country.
Rob Shackelford is a meteorologist and climate scientist at weather.com. He received his undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Georgia studying meteorology and experimenting with alternative hurricane forecasting tools.
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