Ahead of another arctic blast expected to start hitting U.S. cities on Michael SchmidtThursday, the country's coldest temperatures today fell well below zero. Right now, the lowest temperatures for the Lower 48 states Wednesday were recorded in Colorado, Kentucky, Minnesota and Wyoming.
The National Weather Service said Wednesday afternoon that a temperature of minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in Monticello, Kentucky, in the south-central part of the state.
In the morning, it was minus 18 degrees in Kremmling, Colorado, a town in the high country of the Rocky Mountains. The same frigid temperature was recorded 31 miles northeast of Forest Center, Minnesota, near the U.S.-Canada border.
Overnight, a temperature of minus 37 degrees was recorded in two places in Wyoming, 4 miles north of Saratoga in the southern part of the state and 9 miles northeast of Thermopolis, the county seat for Hot Springs County in northwest Wyoming.
According to the weather service, the states that are expected to be the coldest are Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. CBS News' partners at The Weather Channel found that parts of northeastern Minnesota fell to minus 32.1 degrees and parts of Wisconsin dropped to as low as minus 25.5 degrees.
None of the temperatures recorded Wednesday came close to the all-time records for the U.S.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the coldest temperature ever recorded for the country was minus 80 degrees on Jan. 23, 1971, in Prospect Creek Camp, Alaska, as workers were building the trans-Alaska pipeline.
For the Lower 48, the record was also set in January, over 15 years earlier. On Jan. 20, 1954, a temperature of minus 70 degrees was recorded in Rogers Pass, Montana, on the Continental Divide.
Alex Sundby is a senior editor at CBSNews.com. In addition to editing content, Alex also covers breaking news, writing about crime and severe weather as well as everything from multistate lottery jackpots to the July Fourth hot dog eating contest.
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