Temperatures in Gainesville and the rest of north Georgia are expected to plunge well-below normal starting Tuesday and continuing for another couple of days.
An early-season Arctic blast of cold air is barrelling southeastward across the nation's mid-section and is due in north Georgia Tuesday when the high in Gainesville is only expected to reach 47, according to the National Weather Service. Tuesday night's low will be near 25. That'll be a nearly 20-degree swing from Monday night's 42. Wednesday and Wednesday night won't be much better with a high of 45 and a low of 28. Then things begin to moderate and return to near-normal as highs move back into the 50s toward the end of the week and lows recover to the 30s.
The cold weather is riding on wind currents from Siberia — yes, Siberia — and is heading for a huge chunk of the country and it could set record-low temperatures from Texas to New England.
National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Donofrio said Saturday that the weather service's National Digital Forecast Database indicates that some 200 records might fall between Monday and Wednesday.
The cold front is expected to move through the Upper Midwest and the northern Plains on Sunday and then continue southward and eastward on Monday and Tuesday. That will bring January-like temperatures that are as much as 30 degrees colder than normal for mid-November to a large part of the country.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
