The big chill: Coast-to-coast cold strikes USA

Video Keywords winter storm warnings cold air winter storm cold weather Gulf Coast Bozeman samarra USA today Denver Minnesota Washington

It's cold out there! An arctic air mass has caused most of the United States to have temperatures 20-40 degrees below average. That means slick roads, lots of snow, heavy winds and low temperatures well into next week. (USA NOW, USA TODAY)

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00:04 Is it January. Temperatures for most the United States arts
00:07 when he got forty degrees below average and it's not even
00:11 winter yet. I'm crawling around town and it is UN thing
00:15 now for November 13 2014. Denver had a low of negative
00:20 fourteen degrees today which is heat cold weather it's had honesty
00:25 for a hundred years. Along the Gulf Coast temperatures could be
00:29 as cold as it's Wendy's which would kill crops. There's a
00:33 blizzard warning between organ in Washington a region that will receive
00:37 a theory early foot of snow. And 55 miles per hour
00:41 wits. That's all because a cold air mass is pushing its
00:45 waste now into the United States is is very unusual for
00:48 a member. The Arctic blast will affect the eastern two thirds
00:52 of the country which means expect more snow and cold rain
00:56 well into next week. So be careful roads are slick. NBC
01:01 reports that snowy Minnesota had more than 11100. Crashes and Rhodes
01:07 announced on Monday alone. An icy roads are to blame for
01:10 at least four deaths on Monday and Tuesday. Since there are
01:14 already over two million people affected by winter storm warnings in
01:18 the northwest. That storm at the knee winter storm Bozeman. That's
01:23 a fact I learned from Wilbur Thon Al brokers nonstop whether
01:27 showed that started yesterday. In meteorologist is attempting to break the
01:31 Guinness world record for longest uninterrupted weather cast with a 36
01:36 hour broadcast and in samarra. With this unusually Arctic weather actually
01:41 has plenty to talk about. For more weather news you know
01:45 where to go out if the weather dot USA today dot

Brace yourself, folks: The big chill that's covering most of the USA is here to stay — at least well into next week.

"We're locked into a below-normal weather pattern for at least the next week or so, perhaps even up to the 10-day time frame," said AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines.

From a blizzard in Oregon to arctic cold in Denver to lake-effect snow in the Great Lakes and a hard freeze along the Gulf Coast, two-thirds of the USA is enduring a freakish cold snap.

YOUR TAKE: Are you seeing signs of winter in your area?

In addition, sleet and light snow fell before dawn over portions of West and Middle Tennessee. In Memphis, a thin sheet of white covered the windshields of parked cars and left some highways and overpasses icy. Officially, the city picked up 0.1 inch of snow, the earliest the city has ever received snow, the National Weather Service reported.

"Temperatures associated with the cold air mass will be 20 to near 40 degrees below average from east of the Rockies to the Mississippi Valley," the weather service said.

Residents in the Northwest should prepare for significant travel problems and disruptions through Friday along the Interstate 84 corridor in Oregon, Washington and Idaho due to a storm AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski calls "highly unusual" for this time of year.

A blizzard warning is in effect for the Columbia River gorge region between Oregon and Washington, where up to a foot of snow is forecast and ferocious winds will whip up as high as 55 mph.

In Denver, Thursday morning's low of minus-14 degrees smashed the record for the date, set at minus-3 degrees in 1916. That comes a day after the mile-high city's high temperature Wednesday reached just 6 degrees, a whopping 47 degrees below the average high of 53 degrees for this time of year.

Looking to escape the cold? You might consider a trip to Barrow, Alaska. Temperatures in that tiny town on the edge of the Arctic Ocean reached a balmy 31 degrees Wednesday, 24 degrees above normal. But visitors should note one disclaimer: Barrow only has about three hours of daylight right now, and that'll only decrease until total darkness descends for two months starting Nov. 20.

The wild contrast in temperatures is actually related: The unusually curvy jet stream is pulling warm air into Alaska and arctic chill down into the 48 contiguous states.

Elsewhere, morning lows plunged well below zero Thursday across Montana, Wyoming, northeastern and central Colorado and the western parts of Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, WeatherBug reported. A minus-24 low temperature was recorded in Rawlins, Wyo.

In the Deep South and along the Gulf Coast, freeze watches and warnings are in place all the way from Houston to Tallahassee, Fla. Temperatures could bottom out Thursday night in the 20s, which may kill crops and other sensitive plants.

Meanwhile, lake-effect snow will continue to bury areas around all five of the Great Lakes. In northern Michigan, the additional snowfall will just pile on top of the 2-3 feet the region received from a huge snowstorm earlier in the week. Snow will also fly in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York state.

Contributing: The Associated Press