Arctic temperatures are back in our region for the second time this year with some officials speculating this might not be the end of it.
Despite highs in the 50s Monday, National Weather Service officials are predicting single digit wind chills Tuesday, rising to a high of 30 degrees Wednesday before an even colder air mass arrives late Wednesday night.
Temperatures in the low teens are expected Thursday with a wind chill as low as 5 below during the day and 15 below at night.
NWS Meteorologist Dan Spaeth says this week won’t be on par with the system earlier this month, but it’s likely we could experience yet another cold spell before springtime.
“Basically we just got very sharp, strong northerly flow coming out of Canada," said Spaeth. "Of course there’s a lot of cold air up there and occasionally some of that will be driven this way, that’s what we’ve been seeing.
"We’ve got a fairly stagnant jetstream pattern with a ridge of high pressure aloft over the west coast and trophing over our region and that kinda puts us on the spot for tapping that cold Canadian air.
"But I haven’t seen any signs of that overall pattern changing. It’s been cold, it’s going to continue to be cold, maybe we’ll actually get used to it.”
Forecasters are calling for low single digits Friday morning before temperatures slowly warm to a Saturday high of 40 degrees.
Although no precipitation is forecasted, officials say any water left on roadways will likely freeze making for slick driving conditions.
