denver, colorado, is warning of life threatening cold as today is expected to be the coldest day in more than 30 years. numerous road closures reported between colorado and wyoming due to high winds and low visibility. cnn s lucy cavanaugh is in denver. reporter: that s right, denver is bracing for its coldest day in 32 years. we began doing live shots about the weather on wednesday afternoon. it was 50 degrees fahrenheit. the sun was out. that arctic frost, the severe storm moving in overnight. it s being described by the national weather service as a life threatening cold front. temperatures expected to plummet to as low as negative 10 to negative 15 degrees fahrenheit. by day break it s going to feel a lot colder. the wind chill expected to be as low as minus 50 degrees fahrenheit or lower.
affected here with a last 24 hours. that s all i can say to. this that is some bleak forecasts there. thank you very much. i want to turn out to one of the coldest places in the country, billings montana is set to head an overnight low of minus 29 degrees. minus 50 with the windshield. joining me now is billings, mayor bill. cole did i read that right? minus 29? ! that s pretty cold. how do you prepare for something like that? well, you gotta write, john it s about 20 below down, they re 29 below tomorrow. plus we ve had some snow so that roads are slippery and dangerous out there. so how do we prepare well. the winter is nothing new to montana. i really feel bad for alabama, mississippi, and our problems are being and seeing all over
mexico. in the midwest and areas of the high plains, these wind chills are bitter. absolutely frigid. billings, the wind chill minus 50. we do start to see things warming back up to minus 4 by the time we get to saturday, but today is going to be the peak for billings. for denver the peak is tomorrow. as cold as today is, it s gill going to get colder as we go through the next 24 hours. in places like st. louis, nashville, charleston, yours will be delayed another day or two. you have to wait for the cold air to begin to shift. keep in mind, when you are talking wind chills minus 35, frostbite can settle in in 10 minutes. minus 45 now it can settle in in 5 minutes. bring your pet inside during this time frame. one thing to note, too, a lot of people are noticing the temperature dropping rapidly. take a look at this, going from 43 down to 10 degrees in
where we expect weather delays today. push this forward. one thing to note behind the system there s a lot of cold air in place. look at all of these areas of purple and blue where you have the wind chill alerts. here s a look, minus 70 across areas of montana, south dakota looking at those minus 50 degree ranges when temperatures get that low, frostbite can set in five minutes. the temperatures aren t expected to improve all that much going forward in the next couple of days. we will see some improvements in a few areas but other areas likely bottom out tomorrow. the other thing, the blizzard warnings these areas looking at snow showers and potential blizzard conditions where we anticipate the visibility to be below one quarter mile and wind gusts up around 20 to 30 miles per hour. i m stuck on negative 70. i hope those people stay inside. thanks so much.
across parts of the great lakes, up to a foot of snow there with lake effect snows ongoing. timing out the cold. minus 50 on thursday morning in helena. chicago on friday morning, 35 below. look at texas. you better prep your house for extreme cold for several days. and it pours into the east coast, including florida on saturday morning. a wicked holiday travel week coming up, david. no question about that. at least we re all in this together, across this country on this one. rob marciano leading us off tonight. rob, thank you. and of course, the worst of that storm set to strike some of the nation s largest airports, chicago, detroit, new york, all bracing. and of course the ripple effects across the country. gio benitez at laguardia airport tonight. reporter: tonight, that powerful winter storm and life threatening cold temps behind it are threatening to disrupt the holiday travel plans for millions of families on the busiest week of the year. in lynden, washington, near the cana