Arctic blast drops temperatures throughout much of U.S.

Temperatures are dropping across the country and much of the United States can expect its first deep freeze of 2015 in the coming days. While parts of the Midwest are expecting to see wind chills in the single digits, the Pacific Northwest dealt with flooding and landslides.

In several places slick roads caused fatal accidents and in others, snow as deep as seven inches fell. All of it is due to a dipping jet stream coming in from Canada, but meteorologists are avoiding calling it last year's buzzword: a polar vortex.

"We've been told to go around that term," said Michael Musher with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.

Winter arrived in earnest in Illinois on Monday, signaling the beginning of a week that will include sub-zero temperatures and as much as a half-foot of snow.

In the Chicago area, Tuesday temperatures in the teens are expected to give way to overnight lows of minus-10 to minus-14 degrees before warming to no higher than 5 degrees on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

In central Illinois, temperatures could climb as high as the mid-20s on Tuesday before dropping to highs of below 10 degrees on Wednesday. By Wednesday night, they could plunge to a frigid 13 degrees below zero, with the wind chill factor making it feel like 30-below, according to the National Weather Service.

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A blast of Arctic air sent Michigan temperatures into a deep plunge on Monday, with lows dipping to minus-17 in the far north and 8-above in Detroit.

The hard freeze followed freezing rain and snow that made driving hazardous and caused numerous crashes over the weekend that claimed five lives.

A passenger was killed in a two-vehicle crash on an icy Escanaba road Sunday, WLUC-TV said. Two other crashes Sunday killed three people in western Michigan, and a woman died in a Sanilac County crash Saturday.

Michigan's temperatures were mainly in single digits at 3 p.m. Monday, ranging from 1 degree above zero in Menominee, in the Upper Peninsula, to 16-above in Ypsilanti, according to the National Weather Service. Ironwood, in western upper Michigan, registered the state's coldest overnight temperatures, at minus-17. A warmup is expected by the weekend.

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In the Dakotas began with bitter cold and heavy snow. Wind chills plummeted into the minus 20s and minus 30s in the two states early Monday - with the northern North Dakota city of Belcourt seeing a wind chill of minus 48. The National Weather Service posted numerous weather warnings and advisories Monday, with half a foot of snow or more expected from northwestern North Dakota to southeastern South Dakota by the end of the day.

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Snow and some freezing rain were forecast across Montana throughout Monday and into Tuesday, making travel difficult and leading to school closures and avalanche warnings.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the western two-thirds of the state through Tuesday evening.

Forecasters called for continuing snow, high winds in some areas and isolated freezing rain that could make travel difficult.

One to 2 feet of snow had fallen by Monday morning in the Whitefish and Kalispell areas. But forecasters scaled back earlier predictions of more than 3 feet of powder in some areas.

"The message needs to be that conditions are changing rapidly across our forecast area," said Paul Nutter with the National Weather Service in Great Falls. "We're definitely concerned for travelers out there, people on the roadways when conditions are fine one moment, then visibility drops."

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A weekend storm blasted parts of western Washington with torrential rain that caused landslides and flooding, including in one neighborhood in Hoquiam where water washed out the foundations of three homes, threatened others and forced the evacuation of about 60 nursing home residents, authorities said.

Police urged residents to leave their homes along an eight-block stretch of Queets Avenue at the base of Beacon Hill because of the danger that the whole bluff could give way, Police Chief Jeff Meyers said Monday.

There was no exact number of evacuations, and no injuries have been reported. The nursing home was evacuated as a precaution, he said.

Streets are flooded throughout the Aberdeen-Hoquiam area near the Washington coast, which took the brunt of the storm. About 6 inches or rain was reported at Bowerman Airport in Hoquiam.

Office building owner Gordon West arrived too late with a truck loaded with sandbags at his building on South I Street in Aberdeen. Water was already a foot deep in and around the building.

"If I ran the pump now I would just be pumping water in a circle," he said Monday.

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Forecasters say they're expecting a round of frigid winter weather to move into the region around Atlanta later this week.

The National Weather Service says it's expecting wind gusts Thursday morning that could cause wind chills in Georgia to plummet to the single digits. Meteorologists say Thursday's high temperatures could be below freezing in several areas.

Forecasters say Georgians should make plans to protect their pets, plants and pipes.

The cold weather moving into the region isn't expected to include rain, snow and other forms of precipitation.