Arctic blast arrives Saturday night

While you, perhaps, enjoyed the moderation in temperatures today, another blast of arctic air arrives later Saturday, ushered in on brisk winds.

Wind chill readings will once again be in the 30- to 40-below range on Sunday morning.

Bundle up with hats and mittens venturing out after dark on Saturday.

All the forecast maps point to a continuation of the cold air and below normal temperatures as we ride out the last week of the meteorological winter. There is another brief moderation in store for Tuesday.

Meanwhile, along the periphery of the icy air mass, another bout of wintry precipitation is forecast to coat the landscape with sleet, freezing rain and snow from Illinois to New York State on Saturday and Saturday night.

A broad swath of snowfall accumulating 4 inches or more is depicted in this forecast graphic from the Weather Prediction Center.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center released this outlook Thursday for the month of March.

Here is the precipitation outlook for March.

Friday almanac

Much of the landscape received around a half-inch to 1.5 inches of snow overnight. In far northern Minnesota, 3.6 inches accumulated at International Falls, with 2.5 inches at Two Harbors.

An inch of snow around the Twin Cities metro, with temperatures in the teens, iced up roadways for the morning commute.

Arctic air blankets much of the eastern half of the nation. Record lows were seen as far south as Ft. Myers, Florida, where it was 35 degrees this morning.  This breaks the old record of 36 degrees.

In Louisville, Ky., where they have had more than 10 inches of snow this month, the mercury dropped to 6 below zero, breaking the previous record of zero set in 1885.

Notice the small region indicating the 42 below zero recorded at Cotton, Minn., on Thursday morning.

Great Lakes deep freeze

Ice cover on the Great Lakes continues to expand as a result of the prolonged arctic temperatures.

More details on the Great Lakes ice cover can be viewed here.

The Duluth National Weather Service office shared this sound bite today:

It is a distinct possibility that Duluth will not go above freezing for the whole month of February. This has only occurred 8 times since weather records began in 1875. The last occurrence was in 2001.