AUGUSTA, Ga. - An arctic outbreak could bring the coldest air in the Augusta area in nearly 25 years.

A strong area of high pressure moved southeast out of Canada late Wednesday. Lows Thursday morning ranged from -44 degrees in Bismarck, ND to -27 at Spencer, IA. Early this morning, Waterloo, Iowa tied its all-time record low of -34. Detroit established a new record low for the date at -15. The heart of the coldest air will move over the Mid-Atlantic Saturday morning.

We expect a record low of 9 degrees on Saturday morning. The old record for January 17 is 11 degrees, set in 1977.

If Augusta's temperature drops to 9 degrees or below Saturday morning, it will be the coldest weather the area has experienced since the major arctic outbreak of Jan. 20-21, 1985. Back then, the lows were 8 and -1. That set the all-time record low for Augusta.

A year later, on Jan. 28, 1986, a low of 10 was recorded.

Other unusually cold benchmarks are listed below:

Dec. 9, 2006: 15
Jan. 24, 2005: 12
Feb. 5, 1996: 11

In other words, a low temperature of 12 to 14 would make for the coldest weather since 2005. A low of 11 would be the coldest since 1996, a low of 10 the coldest since 1986, and anything from -1 to 9 would be the coldest since 1985.

The last time temperatures fell into the teens in Augusta was as recently as Nov. 22, 2008, when the low reached 18 degrees.

It's a good idea to let your faucets drip during the night when temperatures get this cold. Also, you may want to cover any exposed exterior faucets and unhook garden hoses until the extreme cold weather has passed.