As residents up north deal with Hurricane Sandy, locals in Covington County will be greeted this morning with nearly freezing temperatures.

Forecasts from the National Weather Service showed a cold and dry air mass continued to settle into Southeast Mississippi, Southwest and South Central Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, bringing with it one of the coldest nights experienced so far this autumn season.

Things will warm up today, but only slightly. It should be sunny, with a high near 65 degrees, and locals should expect more wind with gusts as high as 25 mph. Tonight’s low is set at 41 degrees.

Temperatures will slowly creep upward throughout the rest of the week to 76 degrees on Thursday; however, the daytime high will dip to 68 degrees on Saturday. Nightly lows will range between 41 degrees tonight to 50 degrees Thursday and back down again on Saturday to 43 degrees.