Snow pounds Midwest as region braces for coldest temperatures in decades

A snowstorm is pounding the Midwest Monday as the Midwest and Northeast brace for brutally cold temperatures this week.

The Midwest may see its coldest air since the mid-1990s early Wednesday.

In Minnesota, wind chills could be as low as minus 35 degrees Monday night and as low as minus 65 degrees Tuesday into Thursday morning, the National Weather Service warned.

A snow emergency

All Minneapolis public schools were closed Monday and the city has declared a snow emergency due to the heavy snow pounding the area.

There were over 100 car crashes in Minnesota Monday morning, the state patrol said.

The storm moved east throughout the day, from Minnesota to Wisconsin, where a state of emergency was declared.

The snow then moved on to a chilly Chicago.

Over 1,000 flights were canceled at Chicago's airports Monday as the snow hit.

A dramatic rescue

The weather dangers had hit the Midwest even before the snowstorm. This weekend, Chicago police officers rescued a man and his dog from a frozen Lake Michigan.

The snow forecast

The same storm will head south and is set to bring slippery roads to Atlanta and Birmingham Tuesday morning.

Overnight Monday into Tuesday rain will change to an icy mix and snow even as far south as Mississippi and Louisiana when temperatures dip below freezing.

City government offices in Atlanta will be closed Tuesday, the mayor said.

By Tuesday night the storm will move across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic with rain changing to snow from North Carolina to Maine.

Six to 12 inches of snow could hit parts of the interior Northeast before the storm leaves Wednesday morning.

New York City, Washington and Boston will likely just see rain.

Brutal cold

Following that winter storm, extremely dangerous cold weather is headed to the Midwest and Northeast.

Several daily record lows are expected to be broken in the Midwest on Wednesday morning, where temperatures may be the lowest in over 20 years.

Winds chills are forecast to plummet Wednesday to minus 51 in Minneapolis, minus 47 degrees Chicago, minus 32 in Detroit and minus 43 in Des Moines.

That cold air is likely to spread into the Gulf Coast and East Coast, where the wind chill in Atlanta may reach 16 degrees and New York City's wind chill may be just 1 degree.