Today may be the coldest day of the season so far, forecasters say
If you think it’s cold now, Chicago, just wait. Because Mother Nature is just getting, er, warmed up.
A shot of brutally cold weather moved into the area Saturday afternoon and brought with it dangerous wind chills of up to 30 degrees below zero, according to the National Weather Service.
Today was expected to be the coldest day of the winter season so far, with air temperatures struggling to make it to zero and a wind chill advisory remaining in effect for most of the day, said Kevin Birk, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Chicago area office.
“It’s going to be a good day to be inside,” Birk said.
Wind chills that severe can cause frostbite on exposed skin in fewer than 20 minutes, according to the weather service, which advised wearing layered clothing from head to toe and avoiding spending prolonged time outdoors.
Snowfall that ended late Saturday brought about an inch of snow to the area, but Birk said at least two more bouts of light to moderate snow were expected to hit the Chicago area in the next couple of days, with the next system forecast to drop another 3 inches late Sunday night into Monday.
On Chicago’s Northwest Side on Saturday afternoon, residents who ventured out were bundled up head to toe, many wearing heavy jackets with fur-lined hoods or scarves wrapped around their faces.
At the corner of Wilson and Albany avenues in Albany Park, 22-year-old Daniella Lobanova and her boyfriend were busy trying to jump-start her Toyota Highlander, which had refused to start in the bitter cold after being buried earlier in the week by a snowplow.
“I was trying to be courteous and wait until there were no cars coming,” Lobanova said as she waved to a driver waiting for her boyfriend to move his car out of the way. “But people are going to understand.”
The engine coughed to life, and Lobanova said she planned to let the car run for a while so the battery could charge. But she didn’t dare drive it anywhere lest she lose her coveted parking spot.
Told that the weather was about to get even colder, Lobanova sighed.
“I might have to do this twice a day then,” she said.
At the Home Depot on Addison Street and Kimball Avenue, shoppers were busy loading bags of de-icer and salt onto carts and browsing the aisle of snow shovels.
Angel Cabrera, 51, who owns an apartment building in Avondale, said this cold snap was the worst he’d seen since the infamous “polar vortex” winter seven years ago put Chicago in a weekslong deep freeze.
“You can never have enough,” Cabrera said as he hoisted six 50-pound bags of de-icer into his trunk.
Temperatures in the Chicago area Saturday as of 6 p.m. ranged from 10 degrees at O’Hare International Airport to 8 degrees in St. Charles, Aurora and Joliet, according to NWS meteorologist Brett Borchardt.
Wind chills at the same hour ranged from zero to minus 5, Borchardt said, adding O’Hare and Midway measured minus 3.
A wind chill advisory remains in effect until noon today.
The below-normal temperatures are being driven by “a large southward lunge of the jet stream associated with a break-off lobe of the polar vortex,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Brett Anderson said in a news release.
“Well below zero wind chills are possible at times during the stretch, with some locations possibly having minimum wind chills as cold as 15 to 25 below zero late Saturday night into Sunday morning,” according to the weather service.
The frigid weather is forecast to last at least into next weekend, with highs at times in the single digits and lows overnight at or below zero.
The Chicago Park District was closing its ice rinks because of the bitter cold, and other outdoor activities also were being curtailed.
City warming centers at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Englewood, Garfield, North Area, South Chicago and Trina Davila community service centers were scheduled to be open 24 hours a day over the weekend during the worst of the cold snap, according to the city’s Department of Family and Support Services. The department operates the centers when temperatures drop below freezing, though hours are typically more limited.
People will need to socially distance and wear cloth face coverings, but there are extra masks for those who don’t have them, Commissioner Mark Sanders said earlier this week.
City officials have encouraged Chicagoans to call 311 to request well-being checks for family, friends and neighbors.