The worst of the brutally cold 'polar vortex' that plunged millions of Americans into a deep freeze was over Wednesday, forecasters said, but temperatures remained between 10 and 20 degrees lower than normal.
The weather system was receding north, having set new record low temperatures in 50 cities on Tuesday.
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., spent 62 consecutive hours below zero. Chicago spent 37 hours below that threshold, including 29 hours in double digits below zero, according to The Weather Channel.
Subzero temperatures were still widespread across the upper eastern half of the United States on Wednesday, but most areas affected by the extreme cold were beginning to thaw. Conditions are expected to be back to normal by Friday.
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'It's still going to be below average for most of the East but the worst of the Arctic outbreak is over with,' said Guy Walton, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel.
'It will be getting dramatically warmer from today. It is still as much as 20 degrees below average in the Northeast but by Thursday temperatures will be almost back to normal.'
The polar vortex is a cyclone of high winds which usually sits at the North Pole. Changes in the jet stream have meant these winds traveled south, encasing much of the U.S. and Canada in ice throughout the week.
At 4 a.m. ET Wednesday, Boston was at 8 degrees Fahrenheit, still well below its seasonal average of 23 degrees.
New York City was at 9 degrees with a wind chill of minus 8. 'It's certainly not nice but it is getting better,' Walton said of the Big Apple.
Washington, D.C., was at 14 degrees, and Atlanta was at 18 degrees with a wind chill of 8 degrees.
Parts of Minnesota and North Dakota -- where the cold system was at its most brutal through the week -- were at minus 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana were seeing temperatures of minus 4 to minus 8 degrees.
While these Midwest and Plains areas were all well below seasonal averages, they were up to 12 degrees warmer than at the same time on Tuesday.
Almost 7,000 flights were canceled in the U.S. on Monday and Tuesday. Things appeared to be improving on Wednesday, with 542 cancellations by 4 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware.
All 50 states dipped below 32 degrees at some point Tuesday - even Hawaii, where it was 25 at the top of the Mauna Kea volcano, which is normally right at the freezing line this time of year.
Schools and businesses closed for a second day. Single-digit temperatures were recorded at sunrise as far south as Georgia and Alabama, and parts of Minnesota were as cold as 25 degrees below zero.
A 118-year-old record was shattered in Central Park in New York, where it was 4 degrees, the coldest reading on the books for Jan. 7 and the coldest at any time since January 2004. Factor in the wind, and it felt like 31 below in Chicago, 16 below in New York and 45 below near the U.S.-Canadian border in Minnesota.
At least 17 deaths were blamed on the severe weather since snow and bitter cold started punishing the Midwest late last week, according to counts by NBC News, NBC stations and The Weather Channel.
NBC News' M. Alex Johnson contributed to this report. Related:
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