GLOBAL WARMING DEAD! RIP 2015! Arctic outbreak shatters records in eastern U.S., coldest yet to come!

Records are falling along with the temperature across the eastern U.S. on Thursday, as the coldest air of the season surges south. Friday morning’s cold promises to be even more icy, taking aim at the Eastern Seaboard from Boston to Miami.

Temperatures in the Upper Midwest plummeted to as much as minus 35 Thursday morning. Widespread sub-zero temperatures were recorded from North Dakota to Kentucky and east into Pennsylvania and New York.

[How to protect your home, pets and car from this bitter cold]

Frigid Thursday morning lows broke records in the Midwest and Ohio Valley. Chicago set a new record low for the date of minus 8 degrees, breaking the old record of minus 7 set in 1936. Cincinnati, Ohio, Nashville, Tenn., and Springfield Mo., also broke record lows for the date, among dozens of others.

The Kentucky mesonet recorded temperatures down to around 20 degrees below zero in the eastern half of the state, 30 to 40 degrees below average for this time of year. “For Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Paducah, Kentucky, Thursday morning was the coldest since Jan. 19, 1994 with lows of minus 7 degrees and minus 10 degrees, respectively,” writes the Weather Channel. “In Lexington, Kentucky, the low of minus 7 degrees was the coldest temperature there since Jan. 27, 2003.”

While Thursday may seem plenty cold enough for mid-February, Friday will be even more frigid as the plume of Arctic air digs in across the eastern United States. All-time February record lows are possible from Ohio to Virginia on Friday morning as temperatures plummet to as much as 40 degrees below average for this time of year.

If #polarvortex had not happened in Jan 2014, it surely would have been coined and gone viral right now ... Epic. [link to twitter.com (secure)]

@RyanMaue

Record low temperatures for the date are likely on Friday morning across many major Eastern Seaboard cities, including Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Miami.

When combined with winds, the cold outbreak will lead to dangerous wind chills on Thursday and Friday morning. Wind chill warnings and advisories stretch from the Upper Midwest to the Deep South on Thursday — even as far as Miami, where Friday morning lows around 40 degrees could break records for the date, and will surely be the coldest air that southern Florida has seen in five years.

A freeze warning is also in effect for the better part of the Florida peninsula for Friday morning lows. The National Weather Service warns that imminent, sub-freezing temperatures “will kill crops and other sensitive vegetation.”

The week’s record-breaking cold is courtesy of a plume of not just Arctic, but Siberian air that has been trudging across the North Pole and into North America.

NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center cautions of continued, dangerous cold on Friday morning, courtesy of the polar vortex. “There are indications that this could be some of the coldest weather since the mid-1990s for parts of the Southeast U.S., Mid-Atlantic, and central Appalachians,” it wrote in a morning forecast update. “An eddy of the polar vortex will add to the potency of the surface cold front, thus creating a deep layer of bitterly cold air.”

Contrast this warning with the above-average temperatures in the West, where record highs are falling. On the north slope of Alaska, temperatures were running an astonishing 40 degrees above average on Thursday morning.

A strong ridge of high pressure has been building over the West this week, all the way north into the Arctic circle, which has not only brought extreme warmth over western North America but has also forced the eastern U.S. into its record-setting February cold snap.

Though the cold is expected to linger in the Northeast over the weekend, temperatures will moderate across most of the eastern U.S. by Saturday.