BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Snow and cold records fell as an arctic airmass that started in Siberia spilled over a big chunk of the eastern half of the U.S., including the normally mild South, on Tuesday.

The mid-autumn taste of winter brought record single-digit temperatures to Chicago and environs; set snowfall records in Buffalo and Detroit; dusted cars with snow in Memphis, Tennessee; and froze lakes in Minnesota weeks earlier than usual.

Temperatures dipped down to the teens in southwest Minnesota Tuesday, before rising to 20 degrees by the afternoon. Kyle Weiser with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls said while temperatures are far below normal, there not records for the area.

While, temperatures are expected to rise slightly today into the 30s, Weiser said the region can expect between a 1/4- to half-inch of snow today.

Wisconsin farmer Bob Grove still has soybeans in the field, 20 miles south of Milwaukee, but said he can’t harvest them because the snow will clog the machinery.

“Normally, you don’t see this kind of weather to well into December,” Grove said. “It’s caught us off guard, as far as getting crops harvested. Doing what we can in between snow, rain, mud.”

The roughly 10 inches of snow in Buffalo and Detroit by Tuesday morning was a record depth for the time of year, weather service records show. Areas of Vermont and Maine saw similar totals as a wintry mix also closed or delayed hundreds of schools in northern New England.

“This is an air mass that’s more typical for the middle of January than mid-November,” National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Birk said in Chicago, where Tuesday morning’s low of 7 degrees broke the previous record of 8, set in 1986. “It is pretty much about the coldest we can be this time of year (and) it could break records all over the region.”

At least six cities in Kansas set new record lows Tuesday, led by Garden City, which dropped to minus 1, breaking the record of 7 set just last year. Records also fell in Wichita, Salina, Russell, Dodge City and Medicine Lodge.

In St. Louis, the mercury dipped to 11 degrees, breaking a record for the date that had stood since 1911. Warming shelters in Memphis offered relief from a reading of 21 degrees, also a record low for the date.

Schools and businesses as far south as the Gulf Coast states opened late or closed Tuesday because of the unusual cold.

About 20 school systems delayed opening across north Alabama under the threat of wintry precipitation, including all the public schools around Huntsville.

Even more opened late or closed in Tennessee, and a handful of businesses and schools opened late in Georgia.