NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - A deep blast of Arctic cold will threaten daily temperature records from New York to Texas starting late on Tuesday (Nov 12) and running to Thursday.
New York City will drop from 57 deg F (14 deg C) to 20 deg F (minus 6 deg C) over the course of the day on Tuesday as a cold front roars through, bringing rain and possibly a few wet snowflakes, the National Weather Service said.
Manhattan could break a record low for the date on Wednesday if readings there fall below 24 deg F (minus 4 deg C).
"All of them will probably bust record lows for Wednesday morning - JFK, LaGuardia, Newark," said Rob Carolan, owner of Hometown Forecast Services in New Hampshire.
"I could see them all falling."
Since early morning, the temperature in Manhattan's Central Park fell almost 20 degrees, and at mid-day was hovering at around 38 deg F (3 deg C).
The cold is already clutching the Midwest. Chicago received 3.6 inches (9cm) of snow, a record for Nov 11, and the temperature was just 14 deg F (minus 10 deg C) on Tuesday.
Freeze warnings cover the South from Texas to South Carolina.
In Texas, on-peak electricity at the hub that includes Dallas jumped 755 per cent to average US$146.86 a megawatt-hour as of 11.12am Eastern time, according to Genscape data. Spot natural gas in the Northeast jumped to eight-month highs, touching US$8 per million British thermal units in New England on the Intercontinental Exchange on Tuesday, said David Hoy, an energy trader at Dynasty Power in Calgary.
The cold will punch deep into the central and southern US as well, reaching the Gulf of Mexico, said Marc Chenard, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Centre.
Houston could fall to 30 deg F (minus 1 deg C) late on Tuesday and 27 (minus 2 deg C) in Dallas.
On Monday, 1,847 flights were cancelled as the front moved across the US, according to FlightAware, a Houston-based airline tracking service.
The deep cold won't last, though. Computer forecast models predict November could end with closer-to-seasonal temperatures.
