Nearly 230 million face arctic blast following Thanksgiving with temps plunging below average

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Arctic invasion to freeze US with millions plunging below average by Black Friday

It has slowly been starting to feel more and more like winter across the East, but a big change is on the way. After a series of storms exits the East Coast this week, an arctic blast will come crashing in as the calendar flips to December.

As if heavy snow and rain from potent storm systems sweeping across the U.S. wasn’t enough to cause travel delays and dampen the holiday spirit, the coldest air of the season will start to infiltrate the country starting on Thanksgiving and could last into at least the start of December.

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Watch: Frigid temperatures to blast millions across US

Some of the coldest temperatures of the season are getting set to infiltrate the U.S., putting millions of people at risk as temperatures nosedive after Thanksgiving.

We've reached the time of year when temperatures begin to take a nosedive and the threat of lake-effect snow increases. As the Thanksgiving Day winter storm exits the Northeast, it will begin to pull in arctic air from Canada, and it will extend to the south, potentially as far as the Southeast.

"This isn’t just the Northeast," FOX Weather Meteorologist Marissa Torres said. "This is the northern tier, the northern Plains and into the Southeast."

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It’s certainly been a slow start to the colder temperatures in some parts of the Midwest. St. Louis recorded a morning low temperature of 29 degrees on Tuesday, missing its record for the latest below-freezing temperature by one day. 

That record was set on Nov. 27, 2009.

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On Thanksgiving Day, temperatures across portions of the northern Plains will struggle to reach the teens. The forecast high temperature in Bismarck, North Dakota, for example, is only 13 degrees. Minneapolis should also stay below freezing with a forecast high temperature of 26 degrees.

The arctic air will expand in coverage by Friday, with major cities like Chicago and Indianapolis staying in the upper 20s.

Columbus, Ohio, likely won’t make it out of the upper 20s on Saturday as more cities in the East experience the cold weather.

New York City, for example, is expected to remain in the upper 30s on Sunday.