Deep freeze to follow snow
Wind chill will plunge to 35 below
A winter storm was dropping snow on southeastern Wisconsin at a rate of an inch an hour Friday night and wasn’t expected to move east until leaving behind up to 10 inches of the light, powdery flakes by Saturday night.
After that, a blast of arctic air is expected to plunge wind chill factors to about 35 degrees below zero by Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service in Sullivan.
A winter storm warning that went into affect at 3 p.m. Friday wasn’t scheduled to expire until 9 p.m. Saturday night.
Milwaukee is forecast to get 8 inches of snow on top of what fell last weekend by late Saturday.
Street salting and winter parking regulations began Friday afternoon amid announcements of event cancellations and traffic delays.
Milwaukee Public Schools canceled all academic, athletic and recreational activities scheduled for Saturday, and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh canceled its winter commencement ceremony that was scheduled for Saturday.
Most Friday night high school athletic events in southeastern Wisconsin, the Madison area and the Fox Valley were canceled as the snow arrived just as students were heading home for the weekend.
Visibility was reduced to about a half-mile by Friday evening after a commute marked by heavy traffic delays in the Milwaukee area.
The Milwaukee County Transit System also warned that delays in bus schedules should be expected.
Dangerous travel conditions were expected across the state this weekend, with drifting and blowing snow reducing visibility, according to the weather service.
Airlines with flights scheduled into or out of Mitchell International Airport on Friday and Saturday alerted passengers that they can rebook to early next week without paying a change fee.
“All of the airlines are offering that, and that’s typical for a winter storm,” said Harold Mester, public relations manager at Mitchell.
The airport, meanwhile, is “ramped up and ready to go for the winter weather” with snowclearing teams totaling hundreds of people on standby, Mester said.
Snow totals statewide were expected to range from 5-7 inches in the southwest to 8-10 inches in the the northern suburban counties and the Fox Valley, according to the weather service.
A high temperature near 25 degrees is expected in Milwaukee on Saturday before temperatures plunge to below zero Saturday night, with wind gusts from the northwest as high as 30 mph dropping wind chill values to as low as 35 degrees below zero by Sunday morning, according to the weather service forecast.
A high temperature near 2 degrees above zero is expected in Milwaukee Sunday, with wind chill values later in the day dropping to 20 degrees below zero with areas of blowing snow before 4 p.m., according to the weather service.
Snow totals at 8 p.m. Friday from the weather service included 2.5 inches in Milwaukee, 2 inches in Campbellsport, 3.5 inches in Kenosha, 3.6 inches in Franklin, 3 inches in Racine, 2 inches in West Bend, 2 inches in Germantown, 3.5 inches in Oconomowoc, and 3 inches in Madison, according to the weather service.