Extreme Midwest cold follows storm that barreled across Great Lakes and Northeast

Now comes even more frigid weather in the U.S. Midwest.

Extreme cold with near-zero degree wind chills descended upon parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin, forecasters said Tuesday, even as utilities worked to restore power to thousands of customers after heavy snow and strong winds pummeled parts of the Midwest, Great Lakes and the Northeast this week.

The cold front follows a system that barreled across the Midwest and parts of the Great Lakes with strong winds and a mix of snow, ice and rain. Forecasters said it intensified quickly enough to meet the criteria of a bomb cyclone, a system that strengthens rapidly as pressure drops.

Nick Korstad, who lives in the Big Bay Point Lighthouse on Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Lake Superior, called the storm the strongest he has seen since he moved there in 2018, with gusts up to 75 mph (121 kph) rattling the house as waves pounded the cliffs below. The storm knocked out power for about 40 hours, darkening the lighthouse beacon and forcing him to rely on oil lamps and fireplaces.

“When winds reach this magnitude, the entire house rumbles, the windows flex and you can feel the pounding of the waves against the sandstone cliff,” Korstad said Tuesday.

Wisconsin’s forested Northwoods region will see temperatures drop as low as minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 degrees Celsius), said Cameron Miller, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Wisconsin.

“On New Year’s Eve wind chills could be down to the negative 20-25 degree (minus 29-minus 32 degrees Celsius) range there,” Miller added.

Nationwide, nearly 74,000 customers were without power Tuesday, with more than a third of them in Michigan, according to Poweroutage.us.

Frigid air will spread across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country, the weather service said, powering the lake-effect “snow machine” in areas downwind of the Great Lakes.

In New Jersey, an animal shelter scrambled Tuesday to line up foster homes for at least 30 dogs after snow damage to some of its kennels. Snow from a weekend storm apparently tumbled from a neighboring roof onto roofing that covered rear sections of about a quarter of the roughly 125 kennels at the Associated Humane Societies’ shelter in Newark, social media manager Olivia Gonzalez said.

Repairs can’t begin until the animals move elsewhere. “We definitely need to band together and move these dogs out of this building as quickly as possible,” she said. After a social media appeal, two dogs were settled in foster households, though six new stray dogs came into the shelter, Gonzalez said.

Snow totals in some areas of western and upstate New York could reach up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) this week, forecasters said. Strong winds on Monday knocked down trees and power lines across the region.

Video posted on social media showed people struggling to walk in the wind. Just south of Buffalo in Lackawanna, Diane Miller was blown off the front steps of her daughter’s house and landed in some bushes. She wasn’t seriously hurt.

“I opened her door and the wind caught me, and I went flying,” Miller told WKBW-TV.

Temperatures across parts of the Northeast will be below normal heading into New Year’s Day, said weather service meteorologist Andrew Orrison.

On the West Coast, strong Santa Ana winds with isolated gusts topping 70 mph (112 kph) brought down trees in parts of Southern California where recent storms had saturated the soil. Extreme winds hampered an air rescue attempt on Monday in mountains east of Los Angeles where three hikers were found dead. Blustery conditions were expected through Saturday, along with thunderstorms.

Rain on New Year’s Day could potentially soak the Rose Parade in Pasadena for the first time in about two decades.

Cold is the norm this time of year in Alaska — but it’s been “unusually cold for unusually long for December” in Fairbanks, said weather service meteorologist Jacob Troyke. Temperature readings late this month have plunged as low as minus 48 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 44.4 degrees Celsius). Some Fairbanks residents had a bit of fun, posing in swimsuits beside a sign at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Road crews have struggled to keep up with the snow in Juneau, Alaska's capital. The city shattered a December monthly snowfall record of 54.7 inches (1.4 meters) set at its airport in 1964, receiving more than 63 inches (1.6 meters) so far.

Associated Press writers Corey Williams in Detroit; Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia; Chris Weber in Los Angeles; Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska; and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.

A couple explore a field of ice-covered dune grass Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at Tiscornia Beach in St. Joseph, Mich., after a winter storm moved through Southwest Michigan.(Don Campbell /The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Alex Sutula, of South Portland, Maine, wingskates across frozen Great Pond on a skateboard modified with metal blades, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A person walks across the street after a winter storm system hit South East Michigan, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Snow is cleared from a parking lot in Grandville, Mich. on Monday Dec. 29, 2025. (Joel Bissell /MLive.com via AP)

Neil Wakeman, a Luna Pier city council member, holds up a steering wheel as he and friends look over a car that is normally submerged in roughly eight feet of water, about 100 yards off the beach in Luna Pier, Mich., Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Andy Morrison/Detroit News via AP)

Fresh snow blows through Lowville, New York, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, as parts of the Great Lakes region and Northeast are under a winter storm warning. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)

An ice fisherman starts his auger before drilling a hole in the ice on Long Lake following yesterday's freezing rainstorm, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, in Harrison, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

MIAMI (AP) — Nikola Jokic is only going to miss a few weeks, which is surely cause for the Denver Nuggets to take a giant sigh of relief.

The Nuggets' superstar center has been diagnosed with a hyperextended left knee, the team said Tuesday, adding that the three-time MVP will be re-evaluated in four weeks.

It's an obvious blow to the already short-handed Nuggets — but is not a season-ending issue nor one that would require surgical repair. If Jokic misses a month, that means he would be sidelined for about 16 games but could be playing again before February's NBA All-Star Game.

The 6-foot-11 Jokic — considered by many to be the best player in the world right now — got hurt with about three seconds left in the first half of Denver's 147-123 loss in Miami on Monday night.

Jokic entered Tuesday ranked fifth in the NBA in scoring this season at 29.6 points per game, plus leads the league with averages of 12.2 rebounds and 11 assists per contest. The only other player in NBA history to average at least 12 rebounds and 11 assists over a full season was Oscar Robertson for the Cincinnati Royals in 1961-62.

“Obviously, it's part of the game,” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said Monday night after the game — speaking before the team got the word on the severity of Jokic's injury. “But we never want to see it happen. ... Next man up. We've got to focus on what's in here.”

Denver has five games left on a seven-game road trip, one that resumes Wednesday when the Nuggets visit the Toronto Raptors.

Jokic was alone under the basket and appeared to step forward to help Denver’s Spencer Jones defend a drive by Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. as time was about to expire in the second quarter. While backtracking, Jones stepped on Jokic’s left foot and it seemed the center’s knee buckled a bit.

Jokic collapsed to the court, grabbing at the knee. He was helped to his feet, then made his way to the locker room under his own power but with a pronounced limp.

Denver has been playing without three would-be starters in Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Cam Johnson. Even after dropping four of their last six games the Nuggets are still currently No. 3 in the Western Conference at 22-10, with Jokic having played in all 32 of those games.

That's about to change, obviously. Denver is 13-23 over the last five seasons when Jokic isn't in the lineup, and any slippage in the coming weeks would be damaging to the Nuggets' playoff positioning. The Nuggets entered Tuesday only three games ahead of Phoenix, which is currently seventh in the conference.

“You just have to stay with it as a team and as a group,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said Monday night. “And honestly, you have to stay with it as a team and a group because that's how you best support your teammates that are out — by honoring them when you play. So, we'll move on from there. This is part of the NBA."

The injury interrupts what might be Jokic's best season of his career. Not only is he leading the league in rebounds and assists, but he’s shooting a career-best 43.5% from 3-point range and tops the NBA with a true shooting percentage — a formula that accounts for 3-pointers and free throws — of just over 71%.

“It’s like a quest for efficiency and consistency, and I think that’s whether he admits it or not, he sees it as a craft,” Adelman said before Monday's game, a couple of hours before the injury happened. “He’s trying to look at it as something, ‘What can I get better over the year at?’ And I think it’s been really impressive to watch him over these years, not be satisfied with it, and attack new journeys.”

The injury and the timeline laid out by the Nuggets could also mean Jokic is ineligible for major individual NBA awards this season. He would have to appear in 65 of Denver's 82 games to be eligible for most awards like MVP and All-NBA; the re-evaluation timeline suggests that he could miss more than 17 games because of this injury.

Jokic has been first or second in the MVP balloting in each of the last five seasons, plus has been voted onto the All-NBA team in each of the last seven seasons.

With Jokic likely headed toward award ineligibility, BetMGM Sportsbook adjusted its MVP odds on Tuesday — installing reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder as the big favorite at -450, well ahead of Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers (+375). Nobody else is close; Detroit's Cade Cunningham has the third-best odds at +4000.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) looks for a way around Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. (34) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Miami Heat center Kel'El Ware, left, defends Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)