A large portion of the U.S. is about to get hit with some frigid temperatures, which experts are calling the first polar vortex of 2025. Around two-thirds of the country will experience the coldest cold snaps so far this winter, with temperatures reaching dangerously low points.
For much of the country, the weather will be making an extreme shift, going from temperatures well above the seasonal average to well below. According to Accuweather’s Lead Long-Range Expert Paul Pastelok, many parts of the country could even experience “the coldest January since 2011.” And the frigid temperatures may not let up until February.
Experts say the cold will come in two stages, with back-to-back blasts of freezing weather, coupled with bitter wind. The first blast should arrive shortly after New Year’s Day, with temperatures beginning to fall from the Rocky Mountains all the way to the East Coast starting on Thursday, Jan. 2.
“Some of the first subzero F temperatures will occur over parts of the northern Plains late this week, then will back off,” Pastelok said. The colder weather will come with potential for a wintery mix for the New England area.
However, the second cold snap, from Jan. 6 through the 14th, could bring powerful winter storms to other parts of the country. Experts say this dive in temperatures will be the most brutal. And some areas, like the Southeast, are expected to see temperatures far below average.
“Below freezing temperatures are possible as far south as the Gulf Coast and much of the Florida Peninsula,” the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center warned on X (formerly Twitter). “Impacts to highly sensitive citrus crops are possible.” Last year, when colder temperatures hit Florida, frozen iguanas could be seen falling from trees, as the cold-blooded animals struggled to maintain their body temperature.
For the unhoused, as well as those without heat, this kind of cold can create terrifying conditions. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness saw a dramatic rise in 2024, meaning, this year, more people could be at risk of death from frigid weather. Already, deaths linked to cold weather have more than doubled since 1999.
