【Ashley Lopez Archives】

In Boston,Ashley Lopez Archives officials planning annual First Night festivities don't have to worry about melting ice sculptures this year. In fact, with air temperatures tumbling toward the single digits on Sunday night, New Year's Eve is going to be so dangerously cold that event organizers have canceled some of the events — though the fireworks are still on.

In New York City, the ball drop in Times Square will take place amid the coldest weather since about 1962, when the temperature at midnight was a measly 1 degree Fahrenheit. The forecast air temperature at midnight is just 10 degrees above zero, with a wind chill of minus-5 to minus-20 degrees Fahrenheit.

This will create dangerously cold conditions for anyone venturing out to celebrate the New Year. Translation: dress in layers, and cover up exposed skin, or otherwise risk ringing in the new year with frostbite.

SEE ALSO: Record cold in the U.S. and Canada has no end in sight — a running list of the records so far

The cold isn't just disrupting New Year's Eve events in the Northeast, either. The National Weather Service has hoisted cold temperature alerts of some sort, such as wind chill advisories, for 33 states in the lower 48, from Montana to northern Alabama and northeastward to Maine. Alaska climatologist Brian Brettschneider calculated that the eastern half of the U.S. is likely to experience its coldest New Year's in at least 70 years.

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On Sunday morning, Hettinger, North Dakota, reported a wind chill of minus-58 degres Fahrenheit, which is about as cold as it gets even in that northern location. Wind chills that low could lead to frostbite on exposed skin in 10 minutes or less.

The unusually prolonged Arctic outbreak has already set dozens of records for overnight low temperatures and the coldest daytime highs on record. Many locations in the East appear set to break records for the coldest New Year's Day on record, with high temperatures struggling to climb above 10 degrees Fahrenheit in Boston, for example. Boston and New York City are in the running to break cold duration records, with the most straight days below 20 degrees Fahrenheit in Boston, and largest number of days below freezing in New York City.

The U.S. is currently home to the most unusually cold air of anywhere on Earth, with much of the rest of the planet experiencing milder-than-average conditions for this time of year. The frigid weather is the product of a highly amplified, or wavy, jet stream.

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The jet stream, which is a highway of fast-moving air at high altitudes -- about 35,000 feet -- helps spin up and steer storms and separate air masses. Right now, the jet stream is flowing far to the north, over Alaska, and then plunging southward toward the Gulf Coast, allowing frigid air to ooze into the U.S. from the Arctic.

This pattern is known as an Omega Block, since on a weather map it resembles the Greek letter Omega. Such patterns can be stubborn to dislodge, like a houseguest who says they'll be sticking around for a few days but ends up hanging out for weeks.

Recent scientific research has suggested there may be links between melting Arctic sea ice from global warming and stuck, amplified weather patterns like this, particularly ones featuring northward deviations in the jet stream, or ridges, over the Northwest U.S.

Sea ice extent is currently at an all-time low for this time of year.

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And the polar express is showing no signs of relaxing its grip on the U.S., either. An intense storm is likely to develop off the East Coast during the middle of the week, potentially slamming the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast with heavy snow and high winds, though it may stay far enough out to sea to merely deal a glancing blow.

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Regardless of the storm's track, computer model projections show another cold air mass, one that could be even more frigid than the current one, screaming across the Canadian border and settling in for a multiday stay in the Midwest and East. After Jan. 8 or so, a warmup may be in the cards, though there is greater uncertainty at such timescales.

For many living east of the Rockies, it may be time to stock up on even more long underwear in order to make it through the next seven to 10 days.

Editor's note: This piece has been updated to clarify which events in Boston have been canceled.

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