DHAKA: In a few days, people in the Midwest and Northern Plains will have reason to be jealous of what their countrymen in the Northeast are going through now -- digging out from as much as 2 feet of snow, dealing with the effect of blizzard-level winds, and feeling the heat of below-zero temperatures.

Because as cold as it is now, it`s practically tropical compared to what`s coming, reports CNN.

Think lows in the -20s Fahrenheit across North Dakota and Minnesota, with wind chills of -50 or even more frigid, according to the National Weather Service.

Sunday night in Chicago will be a brisk minus 16 to 20, or 35 below to 45 below zero if you factor in the Windy City`s wind.

Those at Lambeau Field for the Green Bay Packers vs. San Francisco 49ers NFL game may cheer against overtime, given that the wind chill may dip to 50 below in Wisconsin that night. As the weather service`s Twin Cities, Minnesota, division warns, "Exposed flesh can freeze in as little as five minutes with wind chills colder than 50 below."

The same agency tweeted that this system will produce "the coldest air in two decades."

In fact, between Friday and Wednesday, nearly 140 million Americans -- nearly half the nation -- will experience temperatures of 0 degrees Fahrenheit or below, according to a CNN calculation.

As Packers head coach Mike McCarthy said Friday: "This is not the norm."

BDST: 1314  HRS, JAN 04, 2014
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