© Michael Dabin/New York Daily NewsA worker removes snow from the stairwell by Stone Street in downtown Manhattan on March 22.
Dreams of clear skies and mild weather will have to wait, as forecasters predicted Wednesday that a record-breaking Arctic blast is headed for the East Coast this weekend.
"Ridiculous late season arctic outbreak Fri/Sat," Weather Company meteorologist Michael Palmer tweeted.
Temperatures in the city are expected to drop as much as 20 degrees below the normal and a slushy snow-rain mix will likely start falling on Friday and continue well into Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
The harsh weather comes less than a week after 3 inches of snow blanketed the city, grounding flights and postponing the Yankees' opening game.
However, New Yorkers can consider themselves lucky.
The harshest weather is set to hit the north and central U.S., with temperatures dropping 30 degrees below normal.
Minneapolis is expected to experience the coldest April day ever recorded on Friday, with a high of only 21 degrees.
The Arctic blast will be cold enough to dump snow from Washington to Boston, according to forecasts. Despite the unseasonably cold weather, temperatures across the northern hemisphere in general are slated to be far warmer than normal, signaling that this cold front in no way negates the overall warming of the planet.
Comment: Arctic blasts, splitting jet streams, polar vortex's - how many new terms have to be invented before forecasters realise that our weather is dramatically changing, it's becoming increasingly colder, the seasons are much more volatile and erratic, and the phenomenon is worldwide, and which is evidence of the fact that we're entering an ice age: