As arctic air begins to filter into Montana, Wyoming, Colorado late this week, warmth remains across the South and Southeast setting the stage for a pre-Christmas system to run in-between. The warmth should hold right up through Saturday, even Christmas Eve before the hammer comes down.

AHEAD of the system, mild fights on and even gains ground for a time in the East while the Upper Midwest turns bitter.

BEHIND the front, arctic air reaches Gulf and Atlantic coast.

While there’s been colder Christmases, it looks like this may well be the coldest nationwide Christmas since 2000.

The GFS doesn’t show a glacier across the US Christmas morning despite coast to coast arctic air!

However… check out the morning of Jan 1.

Coldest Christmas since ’96 on the way for Minneapolis?

Intense cold across the North-Central states brings potential for mid to upper teens below zero and 2-4 days remaining below zero, this could be the coldest Christmas for MSP since 1996 when the morning started off at -22 and only climbed to -9 during the day.

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Jerry Holt / Star Tribune

Tags: minneapolis christmas, minneapolis cold