7:00 AM | After a very cold Tuesday, temperatures will moderate on Wednesday, but Arctic air replenishes for the second half of the week; an area of moisture skirts the region early Thursday with light snow likely

6-Day DC Forecast

Today

Mainly sunny, still quite cold, light winds, highs in the mid 20’s

Tonight

Mostly cloudy, quite cold, lows not far from 20 degrees

Wednesday

Partly sunny, not as harsh, upper 30’s

Wednesday Night

Becoming cloudy, quite cold, light snow likely late, upper teens for lows

Thursday

Clouds early with light snow likely early then becoming partly sunny, quite cold, upper 20’s for highs

Friday

Partly sunny, still quite cold, upper 20’s

Saturday

Partly sunny, not as harsh, mid 30’s

Sunday

Partly sunny, cold, chance for rain or snow late, near 40 degrees

Discussion

The beat goes on as far as the extreme cold is concerned in the eastern US. Temperatures this morning reached record low levels in many areas and, to make matters worse, there is accumulating snow falling as far south as Georgia. A small sampling of today's impressive record low temperatures include the following:

1) Pittsburgh, PA breaks a record held since 1914 (new record -9 degrees, old record -2 degrees) 2) Dulles Airport, VA absolutely annihilates the previous record by 18 degrees when it bottomed out at -4 degrees earlier today (old record of +14 degrees was set in 1967) 3) Buffalo, NY breaks a record held since 1889 by dropping to -7 degrees 4) Chicopee, MA breaks a record by 14 degrees (new record is -19 degrees, old record was -5 degrees set in 1948) 5) Windsor Locks, CT sets record at -8 degrees (old record of -4 degrees was set in 1907) 6) JFK Airport in NYC dropped to a record low of 7 degrees breaking the old record of 14 degrees set in 1968

Finally, while not a record, the low temperature this morning in Punxsutawney, PA was -21 degrees and the groundhog was heard saying "I told you so".

Temperatures here today will struggle to reach the middle 20's, but at least the winds will be on the light side so wind chills will not be much of an issue. Noticeable modification will take place on Wednesday ahead of the next Arctic front, but we'll get right back into the deep freeze during the second half of the week. An area of moisture that continues to bear watching will scoot just to our southeast early Thursday, but it could come just close enough to throw some light snow into portions of the DC metro region and any slight shift in the storm track could have an important impact on our local forecast.