Cold Spell Sets Record Lows

The cold spell sweeping across the nation has been breaking records everywhere from the Midwest to the Great Lakes to New England. “We basically have an anomalous high-pressure system that came out of Canada and brought some really cold air with it,” a National Weather Service meteorologist tells USA Today. A second, even colder air mass, will hit the eastern two-thirds of the country later this week.

The cold has been felt everywhere from the Dakotas to Florida, making an impression even in legendarily cold locales like International Falls, Minn., self-proclaimed “Icebox of the nation.” International Falls hit minus-37 Saturday and Sunday, breaking records set in 1979. Unusually high pressure is keeping warmer Western air at bay, giving the cold Canadian winds free rein. (More winter stories.)