A severe wave of Arctic air will persist across much of the United States this weekend, as tens of millions suffer from extreme cold and face dangerous icy conditions, with the number of weather-related deaths rising to more than 60, meteorologists warned Saturday.
Heavy snow blanketed parts of the Northeast and Midwest on Friday, and falling temperatures overnight left roads slippery.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency announced Saturday that two more people died in an accident on a highway in rural Leflore County north of Jackson. No other details were immediately available.
The death toll in the state reached at least eight people over the past week, and the deaths are attributed to road conditions and extreme cold.
In total, weather-related deaths in the United States rose to at least 61 people amid a wave of dangerous winter weather in recent days. Several deaths were reported in Tennessee and Oregon.
“Frostbite and hypothermia are likely to occur with prolonged exposure outdoors,” Mississippi emergency officials said Saturday.
Temperatures were expected to reach the single digits in Minneapolis and the teens in Chicago and St. Louis, where cold winds brought temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the northern Plains, according to the National Weather Service.
In Baltimore, high winds on Saturday made temperatures feel like they were barely in the double digits. Football fans attending the NFL playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans at M&T Bank Stadium had to bundle up in multiple layers — another cold game, though it's not expected to set records like the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins last weekend. In Kansas City.
Ahead of Sunday night's playoff game between the Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, fans in the Buffalo, New York, area were once again asked to come out on Saturday and help shovel Highmark Stadium. They can earn $20 an hour, according to NBC affiliate WGRZ.
“In order to shovel the Bills, we have to get this done and get this win over the Chiefs,” said fan Tyler Kocher, while team officials estimated that “hundreds” worked hard to dig nearly 5 feet of snow out of the stands.
Meanwhile, Southern cities were also bracing for a deep freeze: Temperatures in Atlanta were in the teens due to wind chills, while residents in Nashville were waking up to temperatures that felt like below zero Fahrenheit.
Travel remained risky Saturday morning in the Great Lakes region, where snow showers were expected in parts of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. The additional snowfall comes after some parts of Indiana saw Up to 32 inches Friday.
Elsewhere, heavy rain is expected Saturday in Northern California, while thousands of residents in the Portland, Oregon, area remain without power after another round of freezing rain on Friday.
At least nine weather-related deaths have occurred in Oregon, including three people in Portland who were killed by a downed power line in an incident in which a young woman witnessed the rescue of a 9-month-old baby.
The recent cold snap is expected to improve after the weekend.
With no additional replenishment of Arctic air from Canada, a “steady warming” is expected in the middle of the country starting Sunday, the National Weather Service said.
