For the first time all winter the National Weather Service said Fairbanks residents can expect typical January temperatures.
"We won't quite escape the really, really cold temperatures this winter," National Weather Service hydrometeorologist technician Harry Lind said.
Lind said the Fairbanks area is expecting to see snow from the weather system that's moved over Southcentral Alaska, once it moves further north. Lind expects a couple inches of snow in the Fairbanks area by Friday night, and more to come throughout the weekend.
But once the snow stops falling a cold weather system from Siberia is moving in.
Lind said temperatures are expected to be minus 44 degrees Monday, and minus 49 degrees by Tuesday. By mid-week he said the temperatures will be "warming up" to minus 42 degrees.
"It is a fast-moving event, then it is going to push off to the east and we will start seeing warmer temperatures by the end of the week," Lind said.
According to Lind, next week's cold weather will be the first "seriously cold" stretch all winter. There were about two days in the early January when temperatures dropped into the minus-30-degree range.
But typically, he said, by December temperatures have already dipped into the minus 40s.
"It is called cold air pooling," Lind explained. "Cold air mass goes over us, but the cold air, being denser, will sit there until some kind of event comes along and pushes it out."
Temperatures are expected to be back above zero by "a couple of digits" by the end of next week.