ROANOKE, Va. – While we deal with cold air and even a little snow, parts of the upper Midwest and northern Plains are dealing with possible record-breaking cold this week.
That may leave some wanting to escape to paradise. While it's no paradise, they could always make a great escape out of this world!
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What?!
Yes, some places are going to be colder than Mars this week. The Mars Curiosity Rover at one point detected air temperatures in the 20s on the "Red Planet."
Sol 2302 (2019-01-27), high -7C/19F, low -73C/-99F, pressure at 8.15 hPa, daylight 06:47-18:54 pic.twitter.com/UGTRSsulhx
— Mars Weather (@MarsWxReport) January 29, 2019
High temperatures will stay below zero in places like Fargo, North Dakota while the temperature hovers around zero in Madison, Wisconsin.
Granted, low temperatures on Mars drop down to -100°F. That will not be the case in the U.S.
When you factor in the wind with the Arctic air settling into North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois, the air will feel like it's 40 to 60° below zero. That's already happened for some folks, as of Tuesday morning.
Could you imagine that? The lowest the wind chill has gotten in Roanoke was -35° back in the 1980s.
We won't get quite that cold this time around, but some wind chills will dip below zero along and west of the Parkway Thursday morning.
After some light snow Tuesday afternoon, a rush of very cold air will come in. This could leave some slick spots on area roads, especially side streets and sidewalks, late Tuesday into Wednesday morning.