Tonight, winter has come earlier for a majority of the country with more than two hundred and thirty five million Americans experiencing below normal temperature from the upper Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. October snow has fallen across the Midwest, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and even dipped as far south as Kentucky, with some areas seeing as much as a foot and a half and more is on the way. In Minnesota, wind chills dipped below zero this morning while more than one hundred million Americans are under freeze and frost advisory tonight from the Rockies to the Northeast. The cold front will push temperatures ten to twenty degrees below normal from the central plains to the Florida panhandle. And some areas will set historic lows with at least seventy-five records expected to be broken tomorrow.

Fall feels like winter in parts of the upper Midwest, thanks to a weather system dropping temperatures and snow. Instead of falling leaves, more than a foot of snow blanketed parts of Michigan, leaving a mess for work crews. In the last forty-eight hours, Ironwood and Marquette, Michigan recorded more than thirteen inches of snow. In Indiana, thick flakes of snow peppered parking lots and roadways, making for slick driving conditions. And instead of white Christmas, the early snow had people wondering about a white Halloween. While the temperature maybe dropping, the cost of heating home is going up. The average cost to stay cozy indoors this winter is expected to rise more than seventeen percent, about two hundred dollars over last year, thanks, in part, to the rising cost of natural gas. One energy expert we talked to said home heating prices here in Texas could be up as much as thirty percent compared to last year. Here in Dallas, it’s weather whiplash. It was in the 90s this past weekend, and now parts of north Texas are under freeze warnings.