Snuggle Up: This Valentine's Day is Going to be Brutally Cold in the Eastern U.S.

Ohio

USA

Andrew Freedman

Mashable

A lobe of the polar vortex will rear its ugly head, drawing Arctic air into the United States this weekend. Temperatures will run 25 to 40 degrees below normal for this time of year on Saturday and Sunday from the Northeast into the Mid-Atlantic. Highs will not climb above zero in some locations, and lows will plummet to minus-20. Photo: David McKeown /Republican-Herald

For more than 100 million people, this will be a serious, albeit short-lived, run in with pure Arctic air. In many ways, the quick hit by this cold air mass is a good example of how the weather is playing out this winter. There has been a constant battle between an El Niño-influenced weather pattern, featuring milder-than-average conditions across much of the country, and Arctic-influenced air masses that have brought snow to the Midwest and eastern seaboard.