Daytime temperatures were to be well below normal, with wind chill temperatures below zero. Wind Chill Advisories were in effect for a wide swath of the country from the Great Lakes through western New England in anticipation of very dangerous wind chills.
Along with frigid temperatures, heavy snow was forecast for the Great Lakes and into the Ohio Valley. The Southeast was to get scattered rain showers late in the day and into Sunday.
A starkly different story was to unfold in the West. Seasonally warm and possibly record-breaking temperatures were forecast, continuing a weather pattern that has been persistent for much of the past week.
Temperatures were to be in the single digits, 10s, and 20s in the Northeast; 40s and 50s in the Southeast; single digits and 10s in the Great Lakes; 50s and 60s in the Southern Plains; and 70s and some 80s in the Southeast.
Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Friday ranged from a low of minus 43 degrees at Clayton Lake, Maine, to a high of 83 degrees at Fullerton, Calif.
