(WFRV) – Friday begins a much-talked-about start to a very cold weekend in northeast Wisconsin.
The morning commute has a quick start with temperatures in the negative teens and wind chills in the negative 40s. Wind gusts reaching nearly 30mph are a significant contributor to the extreme chills.
Saturday does not warm up much. Temperatures reach a daytime high in the lower single digits with wind chills remaining in the lower end of negative 20s in the morning, mellowing out closer to 0 in the afternoon. The wind chills drop once again heading into the overnight hours.
EXTREME COLD WARNING: Arctic air drops in tonight through Saturday
These cold conditions are not necessarily record-breaking, but this is the coldest snap we have seen in nearly 7 years. In regards to the Green Bay area, there have only been 9 days with a below-zero high since 2000. The last date a sub-zero high occurred was Jan 31, 2019. With an anticipated high of -6 for Green bay we dug deeper and found that the last date with a daytime high of -5 degrees or colder was January 31st, 2019, where the daytime high at Austin Straubel International Airport was -5. The average high for this day currently falls at 26 degrees.
Historically, some of the coldest conditions for January 23rd were recorded in 1963. In 1963 Jan 23rd had a daytime high of -12 and an overnight low of -27. These are the most extreme conditions for this day since record keeping began, which started in 1895.
When temperatures begin to drop to these levels, we see an increased risk for cold-related injuries. Frostbite becomes as pressing a concern as it could occur in as little as 10 to 15 minutes in these conditions. The NWS provides public access to the NWS Frostbite Calculator, which can be a useful resource. Northeast Wisconsin also provides various warming shelters for those who may need them.
Warming shelters and cold-weather resources across Northeast Wisconsin
For the state of Wisconsin, what started out as an Extreme Cold Watch has been upgraded to an Extreme Cold Warning. This begins at 12:00 a.m. Friday and expires 6:00 a.m. Saturday. The only area that this does not apply to is Langlade county which has an earlier start with the warning beginning at 9 p.m. Thursday night.
There’s a set of criteria to issuing the cold weather alerts that the National Weather Service follows. Cold weather advisories are issued when the eastern side of Wisconsin expects wind chills -20 degrees or lower, and for the western side of the state, -25 degrees or cooler is the threshold. For an extreme cold warning, the eastern side of the state must expect -30 degrees or cooler, and the western side of the state must expect -35 degrees or cooler. The separation between the two zones can be found below.
The cold stretch is expected to last beyond the weekend. While most days are expected to hold their fair share of sunshine, temperatures are not expected to break into the double digits again until Tuesday, January 27th. Beyond that, we anticipate temperatures to remain within the teens until nearly the start of February.
Storm Team 5 will continue to monitor the upcoming cold and provide updates as new data arrives.
