By Meteorologist Mary Gilbert
(CNN) — Millions of people in the United States are in the middle an exceptional cold stretch — one of the longest in decades for some — and it’s only going to get more brutal headed into next week.
More than 200 daily cold temperature records could be broken from Friday through Monday across the eastern half of the US as temperatures plunge further with a new push of bitter air.
Temperatures this weekend could drop more than 30 degrees below normal in spots, especially in the South and East.
The worsening of already deadly cold is harrowing news for anyone without access to power and shelter, not to mention the wallets of people paying to keep warm.
Continued cold in storm’s aftermath
Last weekend’s historic winter storm and the brutal cold that followed have been blamed for at least 50 deaths in the US, the Associated Press reported.
More than 350,000 homes and businesses in the South caught in the cold’s vice-like grip have no power as of Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us. Some have been without it for four days following the storm.
It’ll be a race against the clock to restore power here before even colder temperatures hit.
The worst of the upcoming cold will unfold Saturday and Sunday in Tennessee and Mississippi, two states hit the hardest by the storm. Each state had more than 100,000 customers without power.
Nashville, Tennessee, and Tupelo, Mississippi, are just two of more than two dozen Southern cities that could set records on Saturday for the coldest daytime temperatures for the date.
Nashville, where power infrastructure was particularly crippled, is forecast to only reach 20 degrees while Tupelo could approach 26 degrees. Those high temperatures are 30 degrees below normal for both cities for this time of year.
Other areas hit by the storm’s ice are also in for another freeze.
Atlanta is also likely to only climb into the mid-to-upper 20s on Saturday. The forecast high temperature of 27 would be the coldest day in the city since December 2022.
Longest-lasting cold in decades
The cold has been unrelenting since it first arrived with the weekend storm.
The period from last weekend into next week could end up being the longest freezing stretch in Philadelphia in nearly 65 years.
The city is forecast to remain at or below freezing (32 degrees) for 12 full days — into next week — which would be the longest since 1961’s 15-day streak.
Farther down the Interstate-95 corridor, it could be the longest freezing stretch in Washington, DC, in more than three decades. Forecasts show DC at- or below-freezing for nine consecutive days, ending early next week. That would be the longest stretch since a 10-day cold blast in December 1989.
Other cities fall short of the multi-decade mark but are still really cold.
New York City could reach its longest-lasting sub-freezing stretch since 2018. Saturday morning coul