If you had icicles hanging from your hair and nose as you were waiting for the bus or getting into your car this morning, get some deicer. They're not melting any time soon.
Weather forecasters say the weeks and months ahead will bring a big freeze to the eastern half of the United States not experienced in more than 30 years.
"It'll be like the great winters of the '60s and '70s," said AccuWeather.com Chief Meteorologist and Expert Long Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi.
The last time such bone-chilling temperatures swept the nation was in January 1985. But Bastardi said this winter is shaping up to more closely resemble that of 1978, when the National Guard had to be called in to combat two blizzards that whacked New York with more than 30 inches of snow.
AccuWeather Senior Vice President and Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams says the severely low temps could continue into March.
"If it stays this cold for this long, will the groundhog even want to come out on Feb. 2?" he joked.
We can't blame Phil if he wants to stay inside. No New Yorker wants to leave their warm homes for the bitter cold and wind either.
While the freezing temperatures are normal for this time of year, it hasn't been so cold since the winter of 2002-03, which forecasters consider the benchmark for frosty conditions in the last decade, according to AccuWeather.com. This winter, however, the frigid temps are even more widespread. And with the entire East Coast shivering in the clutches of this arctic outbreak, it's likely to be the coldest winter in recent memory.
This winter has already dumped more than a foot of snow on New York, and temperatures have twice dipped to a numbing 16 degrees in Central Park, according to The National Weather Service.
The freezing weather is supposed to last all week, with forecasters predicting temperatures ranging from a low of 16 degrees to a high of 35 degrees and possible snow showers on Thursday and Friday.
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