USA will be “coldest place in the world” on New Year’s Eve as relative temperatures drop

Relentless and punishing, repeated blasts of cold air will continue surging into most of America through the first week of the New Year, with only the western United States being spared.

This cold is likely to be the country’s most extreme since February 2015 and, over a long duration, will produce dangerously low temperatures and wind chills over large portions of both the central and eastern United States.

On the morning of New Year’s Day, the National Weather Service predicts the nation’s average low temperature to hover around minus-12.22 Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit), with about a third of locations below zero.

These temperatures, compared to normal, will be the coldest in the world.

But the pain won’t end with the start of 2018.

Temperatures that are some 8 to 16 degrees Celsius (15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit) lower than normal will grip much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation by up to seven to 10 more days.