A frigid arctic air mass is sweeping down from Canada, making its way into the northern United States, while those living in the Pacific Northwest remain on edge due to potential mudslides and levee breaches caused by persistent floodwaters.
The widespread flooding has led to mass evacuations, including that of Eddie Wicks and his wife, who reside on a farm surrounded by sunflowers and Christmas trees near the Snoqualmie River in Washington state. As they relocated their donkeys to higher elevations and their goats to an outdoor kitchen, they witnessed the river’s water level rising faster than ever before.
On Thursday afternoon, their home was overtaken by the floodwaters. Fortunately, the King County Sheriff’s Office marine rescue dive team managed to save the couple and their dog, ferrying them across what had become a lake out of their field. The dramatic rescue was caught on camera.
Big cities like Chicago, Minneapolis brace for Arctic air
As communities in the Pacific Northwest start to heal from the flooding, another weather system is bringing dangerously cold wind chills to the Upper Midwest.
By midday Saturday, temperatures in Grand Forks, North Dakota, plummeted to minus 12 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 24 degrees Celsius). Factoring in the wind chill, it felt like a bone-chilling minus 33 F (minus 36 C), according to the National Weather Service.
Major cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago are bracing for the coldest temperatures late Saturday night into Sunday morning. Minneapolis is expected to experience lows around minus 15 F (minus 26 C) early Sunday, while Chicago’s temperatures are anticipated to dip to about 1 F (minus 17 C) by the same time, as reported by the weather service.
The Arctic air mass was expected to continue pushing south and east over the weekend, expanding into Southern states by Sunday.
The National Weather Service on Saturday issued cold weather advisories that stretched as far south as the Alabama state capital city of Montgomery, where temperatures late Sunday night into Monday morning were expected to plummet to around 22 F (minus 6 C). To the east, lows in Savannah, Georgia, were expected to drop to around 24 F (minus 4 C) during the same time period.
Danger of mudslides, levee failures continues in Pacific Northwest
The cold weather freezing much of the country comes as residents in the Pacific Northwest endure more misery after several days of flooding. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate towns in the region as an unusually strong atmospheric river dumped a foot (30 centimeters) or more of rain in parts of western and central Washington over several days and swelled rivers, inundating communities and prompting dramatic rescues from rooftops and vehicles.
The record floodwaters were expected to continue to slowly recede Saturday, but authorities warn that waters will remain high for days, and that there is still danger from potential levee failures or mudslides. There is also the threat of more rain forecast for Sunday. Officials have conducted dozens of water rescues as debris and mudslides have closed highways and raging torrents have washed out roads and bridges.
—
Associated Press writers Hallie Golden in Seattle and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed.
.
