(WWJ/AP) An arctic wave has wrapped much of the Midwest in numbing cold, sending temperatures plunging Friday, but forecasters say the worst may be yet to come.
In northern Michigan, the U.S. Coast Guard warned residents of islands in the river connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron that they could be cut off from ferry service during next week's deep freeze. The guard urged residents to stock up on supplies including food and heating fuel. Ice-breaking operations were working to keep ferry routes open.
In the metro Detroit area, forecasters are calling for much colder temperatures then earlier in the week, with a high of only 16 degrees Friday, feeling more like 5 below zero with the wind chill. WWJ AccuWeather Meteorologist Kerry said a little more snow is expected on a frigid Friday night, with bone-chilling low of 6 degrees, and maybe colder in some of the Southeast Michigan area.
Looking ahead, the National Weather Service is forecasting up to six inches of snow in much of the Lower Peninsula from Sunday to Monday night. ((More details on the local weather forecast HERE)).
The wind chill, which describes the effect of wind and cold temperatures on exposed skin, is of more concern because frostbite can occur within minutes. Schools closed Friday because of the cold in western Michigan, northern Illinois, eastern Iowa and other parts of Wisconsin.
Even harsher weather is expected next week. Bitter cold as bad — if not worse — than the 2014 polar vortex outbreak is expected, as frigid air escapes the Arctic in two icy excursions into Canada and the continental U.S., according to Ryan Maue, a meteorologist for weathermodels.com.
The first bout of cold air will strike northern Michigan and bring extreme cold to Ontario, while the second will spin south over the Midwest and through the Great Lakes, Maue said.
"This is a textbook case of an Arctic outbreak," Maue said in an email, noting that some forecasters are calling the frigid invasions of cold air "Barney" because computer forecast models show them as chubby purple blobs.
Meanwhile, 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 (negative 42 Celsius) in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota and to 35 below (negative 37 Celsius) in parts of northern Illinois and Iowa. In the Milwaukee area, temperatures were expected to reach just 2 degrees (negative 16.7 Celsius) with a wind chill of minus 23 (negative 20.5 Celsius).
The NWS notes that "potentially historic cold" is possible in northern Illinois starting Tuesday, following several inches of snow, with daytime temperatures below zero and wind chills frequently falling below negative 30 (negative 34.4 Celsius).
The deep freeze caused organizers of the Winter Carnival in Minnesota to cancel several events, including Thursday night's parade through downtown St. Paul. In South Dakota, the city of Sioux Falls has closed its six outdoor skating rinks because of the cold weather.
Kenny Blumenfeld, a senior climatologist with the Department of Natural Resources' State Climatology Office, said winter cold snaps on average are an annual occurrence in Minnesota, but extreme cold happens once every three to five years.
"It's Minnesota. We're supposed to go below zero and spend a lot of time not coming above zero. It's part of our winter," Blumenfeld said.
The University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer notes that the temporary icy cold doesn't disprove global warming, despite what some non-scientists may claim. On Friday, the globe as a whole was 1.08 degrees (0.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1979 to 2000 average.
"In a warming world you're still going to have unusually hot and unusually cold events happening in a particular part of the world," Berkeley Earth climate scientist Zeke Hausfather said. "Weather is not going away."
