Record low temperatures on the way for Northeast this weekend

— -- Arctic air spilled into the Midwest on Thursday with temperatures dropping through the 20s and teens in the Dakotas and Minnesota. That icy cold is now making its way toward the Northeast, with record lows in store.

Wind chills in the Midwest were in the single digits and even below zero in far northern Minnesota.

By tomorrow morning, actual temperatures could be below zero in parts of northern Minnesota, with lower teens in the Twin Cities and near 20 in Chicago. These are not record lows, but they are about 15 degrees below normal.

Not so in the Northeast, where records could definitely fall on Saturday morning.

The cold air swings east on Thursday night into Friday morning with record low temperatures possible Saturday morning in Washington, D.C., New York City and Boston.

Because of the cold and snow, the National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning and Winter Weather Advisory for snow in parts of the Great Lakes and a Freeze Watch from North Carolina to Connecticut for the record cold. Wind advisories are in place for New England, where gusts could reach up to 50 mph.

Snow on the way

The heaviest snow will be found near the Great Lakes, from northern Wisconsin to Michigan where locally a foot of snow is possible today and tonight.

For the Northeast, some lake effect snow is possible in western New York and Pennsylvania as the arctic air moves over the relatively warm lakes on Friday.

A low pressure system could also bring a few inches of snow to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine on Friday and Saturday.