The polar vortex that has gripped the Plains and Midwest will finally lift back into Canada, the National Weather Service says, promising a warmup that will bring a whiplash shift in temperatures. By Saturday, the agency says, the central Plains area will see temperatures in the low 60s — nearly 20-25 degrees above normal.
“By Friday, temperatures in the Upper Midwest will finally rebound to well above zero,” the NWS says, “with high temperatures making it into the teens and low 20s. By Saturday, high temperatures will be in the 30s and even low 40s.”
But on Thursday, the vortex is still sitting on a broad swath of the U.S. like a massive ice cap, causing school closures, business shutdowns and other disruptions. In the Upper Midwest, wind chill values are between 50 and 20 degrees below zero on Thursday. And that’s an improvement over Wednesday’s even colder numbers.
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