Freeze alerts issued as temperatures plunge in the East after summer-like spell
Freeze alerts issued as temperatures plunge in the East after summer-like spell
KYLE REIMAN and BILL HUTCHINSONSun, April 19, 2026 at 7:00 PM UTC
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Don't put away those winter coats just yet.
Summer-like temperatures will give way to chilly weather across the Northeast beginning on Monday as residents in the Midwest and Plains clean up after a spell of severe weather that spawned multiple tornadoes.
Morning temperatures are forecast to be near 40 degrees along the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to New York Monday and into Tuesday, just days after 90-degree weather enveloped much of the East.
BIll Hutchinson/ABC News - PHOTO: Fog obscures the Manhattan skyline in New York City, April 19, 2026.
It may be even colder from Chicago to Boston, where morning temperatures are expected to dip into the mid-30s on Tuesday, with some morning frost possible.
In parts of the Midwest from Minneapolis to Detroit, temperatures could fall to below freezing.
ABC News - PHOTO: High temperatures for Monday, April 20, 2026.
Just days after temperatures soared into the 90s, setting daily high temperature records in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia, the weather is expected to turn significantly cooler to start the workweek
At least 35 tornadoes reported across 10 states
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Some places in the Northeast could also approach record low temperatures. Come Tuesday morning, places like Trenton, N.J., Scranton, Pa., Syracuse, N.Y., and Manchester, N.H., will likely see temperatures fall to below freezing and could break or tie their respective record low temperatures for the day.
ABC News - PHOTO: Freeze alerts from Iowa to Connecticut on Monday morning, April 20, 2026.
The cold snap will be short-lived, as temperatures return to a more spring-like feel by Wednesday across the East, with summer-like weather returning by Thursday and Friday.
ABC News - PHOTO: Morning low temperatures for Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
Meanwhile, the Midwest and Plains were cleaning up from days of severe weather that saw numerous tornadoes develop, some causing damage across Minnesota and Michigan.
50 million people on alert for severe weather from Texas to Michigan
The National Weather Service has preliminarily confirmed 50 tornadoes between April 12 and April 17 across 12 states, most of them in Illinois and Wisconsin. However, tornadoes were also confirmed during that time frame as far west as California and as far east as Vermont, according to the NWS.
ABC News - PHOTO: High temperatures for Thursday, April 23, 2026.
At least 15 tornadoes were confirmed by the NWS in Illinois, 10 in Wisconsin, seven in Oklahoma and five in both Missouri and Iowa. Michigan and Kansas both had two tornadoes confirmed by the NWS.
The cold front that caused the severe weather late last week is continuing to move east into the Northeast on Sunday, bringing rain and even high-elevation snow showers to parts of the region before pushing off the coast later in the day.
Source: “AOL Money”
