Polar vortex leaves more than 30 states on alert for dangerously cold weather

A dangerous and potentially life-threatening stretch of cold weather has much of the U.S. on alert as a lobe of the polar vortex invades the nation and sends temperatures tumbling to levels not seen in years.

It’s been a somewhat mild winter so far, but things have certainly changed as winter weather makes its presence known across the Lower 48 states.

A rare winter storm is getting set to slam the Gulf Coast and South, with cities from Texas to Florida under Winter Storm Warnings.

In the East, tens of millions of people along the heavily traveled Interstate 95 corridor from Washington to Boston were blasted with heavy snow on Sunday.

The National Weather Service said temperatures have plummeted across the Rockies, Plains and Mississippi Valley, and the East Coast is now feeling the freeze as the new workweek begins.

President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in for his second term on Monday in Washington, but due to the temperatures, the ceremony will be held inside the United States Capitol Rotunda.

These temperatures are undoubtedly going to be the coldest of winter so far and, in many cases, the coldest in years. Combined with a brutal wind chill, it will only add to the extreme danger associated with the cold.

In the Midwest, the wind chill could make it feel like -45 degrees in International Falls, Minnesota, on Tuesday morning. In Chicago, the Windy City, it will feel like -21 degrees.

But those brutal wind chills aren’t limited to the Midwest and Plains.

Montgomery, Alabama, which is also on alert for the rare winter storm set to slam the South, will also feel wind chills dropping into the teens by Tuesday morning.

More than 30 states are now on alert because of the cold, including Extreme Cold Warnings for wind chill values as low as -50 degrees. Cold Weather Advisories and Extreme Cold Watches are also in effect.

Forecast high temperatures from the Great Basin and Rockies to the East Coast will be 20-30 degrees below average, ranging from the negative teens and negative single digits in the northern Plains and Upper Midwest to the single digits and teens in the Rockies, central Plains and Midwest.

Temperatures in the teens and 20s are expected in New England and the mid-Atlantic, with the 20s and 30s forecast for the Great Basin, southern Plains and Southeast.

Life-threatening wind chills of -30 to -55 degrees are expected across the Rockies, northern Plains and Upper Midwest through Tuesday morning.