Bundle up, Baltimore. There’s a chance of snow this weekend before temperatures are expected to drop to the single digits next week, thanks to a blast of arctic air.

The weekend will be mostly cloudy, according to the National Weather Service, with a chance of accumulating snow on Sunday. The Baltimore region is expected to get 1 to 5 inches of snow, according to the NWS, with the steadiest snowfall between Sunday morning and early evening.

View post on X

The weather clears up slightly on Martin Luther King Jr. Day., but “dangerously cold wind chills are likely” through Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Polar vortex is coming

A lobe of the polar vortex, a ring of cold air that typically circles the arctic, is moving toward the Rocky Mountains and is expected to hit much of the United States by Monday.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Monday evening through Tuesday night could see temperatures as low as 8 degrees in the Baltimore region and a high near 32 degrees through the week, according to the NWS.

Connor Belak, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Baltimore/Washington office, said wind chill will make the air feel like it is 10 degrees below freezing.

The vortex, which flows counterclockwise and keeps the colder air close to the poles, often expands during the winter, bringing frigid weather south.

Wind chills from the 2014 vortex left Baltimore with below-freezing temperatures for 15 days, according to WMAR. The vortex set record lows for much of the country.