You think it’s cold now, just wait ’til Sunday!
It’s already been a cold winter, and a new system moving into the state Sunday is going to bring an arctic blast like we haven’t had in nearly 20 years. Meteorologist Tony Schumacher from WAOW television in Wausau says the frigid temperatures we’ve experienced lately is nothing compared to what’s right around the corner. “It’s gonna be three solid days of just brutally cold weather. The actual low temperatures could get down around 30 below zero. A few of the colder spots might get down 35 to 37 below, that’s the actual temperature.”
Schumacher says those temperatures will mean 40 to 60 below zero wind chill factors — a real danger to people and animals. He says it’s rare to have a system like this affect our weather.
“The last time we had thirty below in Wausau for a temperature was early February, get this, of 1996. So it is kind of a rare thing for us.”
Northwestern Wisconsin had recorded the coldest temperatures in the state many years ago — 55 below zero on February 4th, 1996 in Couderay, and 60 below on January 9th, 1977 in Rice Lake. So, Schumacher says, records likely won’t be broken any time soon, but this cold is dangerous, nonetheless. There were also unofficial reports of 62 below in nearby Chetek that day.
Larry Lee, WSAU