Powerful cold front to sweep East Coast with frigid air, damaging winds

A very strong cold front sinking south out of Canada will send dangerously cold temperatures and potentially damaging winds sweeping toward the East Coast to start the weekend.

This will likely be the coldest air of the season for some areas in line for the deep--albeit blissfully brief--chill.

High wind warnings and wind advisories are in effect across much of the Mid-Atlantic ahead of winds that could gust 60+ mph behind the cold front's passage late Friday into Saturday. Scattered tree damage and power outages are possible.

The big story, though, is the brutal cold expected this weekend. Low temperatures on Saturday morning will dip below zero across a large portion of the Great Lakes and Northeast.

Conditions won't warm up much during the day. Many areas expecting subzero temperatures Saturday morning will struggle to climb out of the single digits or teens during the day Saturday.

Washington, D.C., may only reach 18°F for a high on Saturday. Not only would that be the coldest temperature so far this season, but it would be the coldest high recorded there since January 16, 2009.

Scranton's forecast high of about 7°F would be the coldest maximum temperature there since the high only reached 6°F on January 7, 2014.

Temperatures will take a plunge again overnight Saturday into Sunday morning, with single digits across the Megalopolis and values at or below zero throughout the interior.

Bitterly cold temperatures are expected again Sunday before the upper-level trough finally moves off toward Atlantic Canada, allowing readings to rebound a bit to start the new week.

Want some good news? The freezing line could briefly retreat toward the Canadian border during the day Wednesday, providing a reprieve for communities in line to shiver through the next couple of days.

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