If you think our current cold spell is too much to take, you may want to hibernate inside for the next week or so.
Because it’s about to get cold — like a string-of-days-that-don’t-get-above-zero-type cold.
After a high near 7 with wind chill values as low as minus 12 during the day on Sunday, heavy snow is expected Sunday evening into Monday, with 5 to 10 inches possible for the Twin Cities metro area before it starts to get dangerously cold, according to the National Weather Service. A winter storm warning goes in effect 3 p.m. Sunday until noon Monday.
After Monday’s high near 10, temperatures are expected to fall to highs near minus 8 on Tuesday, minus 13 on Wednesday and minus 2 on Thursday.
Yes, those are the high temperatures. The lowest temperature in the forecast is minus 26 overnight Tuesday.
If Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport sees thermometers fall that low, it would be the lowest temperature recorded there since January 2014, marking a repeat of the infamous “polar vortex.”
Wind will make it feel even colder, and wind chills of 35 below zero or colder are possible Tuesday into Thursday. A wind chill watch will be in effect for midweek.
It doesn’t look like the Twin Cities will climb above zero until Friday, when the high is expected to be near 10, according to the weather service.
WINTER CARNIVAL
Frigid temperatures caused officials of the 133rd St. Paul Winter Carnival to cancel at least two events so far: Thursday evening’s opening pedestrian Moon Glow Parade and Friday’s events at the Vulcan Snow Park at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.
Winter Carnival president and CEO Deb Schaber said Wednesday the festival’s policy is that events go on unless the wind chill is 25 or more degrees below zero.
The King Boreas Grand Old Day Parade went on as scheduled Saturday afternoon, as did the Securian Winter Run on Saturday morning.
SCHOOLS
The frigid conditions could also lead to school closings next week in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
As of Friday, the National Weather Service was expecting the wind chill to hit 41 below while kids would be waiting for their buses Wednesday morning.
The Thursday morning forecast called for a wind chill of 34 below.
The St. Paul and Minneapolis school districts cancel school when wind chills are expected to be 35 below. Minneapolis notifies families of school cancellations no later than 5:30 a.m. that day. St. Paul makes the call by 6:30 the night before.
St. Paul’s Discovery Club child care program closes on snow days but remains open at limited sites on cold-weather cancellation days.
Meanwhile, Gov. Tim Walz on Friday said that his administration is considering closing Minnesota schools next week if conditions warrant.
The DFL governor told reporters that he felt local school officials tend to make the right decisions in opting to call off classes due to extreme weather, but he was weighing whether the state should step in.
“I really trust local officials and superintendents and folks to make these decisions,” Walz said. “We’ll certainly see when it’s the proper role. We always make these decisions based on the safety of our children, the safety of people on the roads but also understanding what are the implications of when you do that … We’ll explore it.”
Walz said his 18-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son had lobbied their father to call off classes next week.
‘POLAR VORTEX’ REDUX
Forecasters are calling the Arctic onslaught a replay of the “polar vortex” that bludgeoned the U.S. in 2014 — and maybe even colder.
“We’re going to be feeling it big time,” Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private Weather Underground, said. “It’s going to be the coldest air in five years.”
For much of middle America, the leading edge was bad enough. Cold weather advisories were in effect Friday from North Dakota to Ohio, with dangerously cold wind chills that could dip to as low as 45 below zero in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota and to 35 below in parts of northern Illinois and Iowa.
When the polar vortex plunges into the U.S., it will be warmer in parts of the Arctic — Greenland, northern Canada and Alaska — than in Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul, meteorologists said.
Schools in Milwaukee canceled classes Friday. So did schools in western Michigan, eastern Iowa and northern Illinois. In northern Michigan, residents of islands in the river connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron were warned to stock up on supplies in case ferry service was cut off. In Chicago, warming centers opened.
Masters said the cold snap is due to the polar vortex, the gigantic circular upper air weather pattern in the Arctic region enveloping the North Pole, splitting into three pieces in late December because of an occasional weather condition called “sudden stratospheric warming.”
One chunk of that trapped cold air went to Siberia, another to Scandinavia, and the third piece is heading through Canada.
On Wednesday, it will be over northern Michigan somewhere, he said.
It’s a system some forecasters have dubbed “Barney” because computer forecast models show the cold air as chubby purple blobs, said Ryan Maue, a meteorologist with the private forecasting company weather.us.
The polar vortex rarely plunges as far south as the U.S., maybe every few years or more, Maue said.
This report includes information from the Associated Press and Forum News Service
Copyright 2019 Pioneer Press.
