If you think it’s frigid now, next week is going to be “brutal,”according to a short-term weather forecast issued by Salomon SmithBarney yesterday.

Beginning the week of Dec. 11, Salomon Smith Barney forecaststhat a “massive Arctic air mass surging from the Polar regions”will hit the United States. “This air mass is extremely impressiveand is expected to be in the range of about 1050 MB [millibars]when it moves into the Northern Rockies. This is easily in thecategory of a Polar Pig,” said meteorologists Jon B. Davis and MarkRusso. A Pig as the “ultimate Arctic air mass.”

That means it’s going to be “big time” cold, Davis noted. “.[W]ehave not had an Arctic air mass this strong move into the lower 48during the past four winters,” the Salomon Smith meteorologistssaid. The National Weather Service in its latest six-10 dayforecast confirms a massive cold wave descending across the countrynext week.

“One of the other impressive features of this Pig is that it isvery large geographically and thus will influence a huge area. Infact, when all is said and done, it will influence areas from theWest Coast to Texas to Florida to the East Coast and everywhere inbetween.” They are predicting the weather will be coldest in areas”closest to the initial delivery point of the air mass — Rockiesand Plains. If this air mass is close to 1050 MB, there will besome record-setting cold in portions of the Rockies and the Plains,which is something we have not had in the middle of winter for avery long time,” said Davis and Russo in their report.

Although the air mass will lose some of its intensity at itmoves south and eastward, Salomon Smith Barney predicts thatbetween Dec. 11 and 16 no area of the nation will have normal orabove-normal temperatures. “Obviously, the middle of December isgoing to be a period of exceptionally high heating demand.”

While this week (starting Dec. 4) won’t be as cold, it’s nothingto sneeze at, they said. Davis and Russo see a “moderately strongArctic air mass…pushing down into the eastern half of the nationthis week.”

They predict the air mass “will move into the North Plains(Dakotas) early Tuesday morning and then reach the Gulf Coast andEast Coast by Wednesday night and Thursday. The coldest weatherwith this air mass will be Tuesday/Wednesday in the Great Lakes andWednesday/Thursday in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region.”

The entire eastern half of the nation will experience”considerably to substantially below-normal readings” during thefour-day period from Dec. 4 to Dec. 7, the meteorologists said. TheWest will get a break, with above-normal temps this week, “whichwill keep heating demands on the low side.”

The forecasters expect temperatures to moderate by the weekendin the eastern U.S. “As a result, readings across much of thenation will be near normal during the Friday-through-Sundayperiod,” giving the nation a brief respite before the brutally coldweather strikes next week.

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