Today: The coldest air of the year has arrived in southeastern Wisconsin. The reason for this arctic air was brought on by an approaching strong dome of high pressure. With sunny blue skies for the day temperatures will tumble only making it to the low negative single digits and paired with a gusty northwest breeze around 15 mph with gusts approaching 20 mph throughout the day this will bring to feel like temperatures in the -40 to -30 degree range. Coldest wind chills will be felt this morning and as the day goes on sustained winds and gust will ease going into the evening. Finally, the national weather service has used an extreme cold warning for Milwaukee county and surrounding areas until noon today. If possible, stay inside as much as possible. Exposed skin could get frostbite in 5 minutes and if you have to go out bundle up with multiple layers.
Overnight: During the overnight hours clouds will begin to roll in and skies will become partly cloudy. Temperatures will still be brinks side with lows bottoming out in the mid negative teens with sustained northwest winds around 5 mph, but gusts could still be around 20 mph. This will make it feel like temperatures slide down into the negative 20’s. Although this is an improvement from the day the national weather service has issued a cold weather advisory until noon on Saturday. This will keep temperatures in the -25 to -30 range. Make sure you bundle up with blankets overnight.
Tomorrow: A cold weather advisory will be in effect through Saturday morning and until the noon hour. Winds will really begin to ease with sustained speeds around and in the afternoon noon below 5 mph. This in turn will help temperatures to increase throughout the day with high temperatures dancing in the mid single digits in the afternoon. It will still be cold through Saturday so be sure to bundle up when outside. Despite the aforementioned dome of high pressure being overhead, skies will be mostly overcast, but perhaps we could see some peaks of sunshine throughout the day. Into the overnight hours skies will remain overcast with winds increasing slightly out of the northwest from 5-10 mph and temperatures will slide back again to just above zero.
Extended: Cold temperatures will continue through most of the extended forecast. Sunday through Tuesday highs only get into the low teens excluding Monday where we only high single digits for a high temperature. Lows will still be in the negative single digits just above zero through the overnight hours. Sunday through Monday the dome of high pressure will start to sink south. With this high pressure system sinking south models have come to an agreement that the big winter storm down south will stay south of the Milwaukee area, which is good news because of recent harsh temperatures. I would like to mention Sunday the area could see a little lake effect snow off of Lake Michigan (30% chance). Accumulation will be little to none or just a few tenths of an inch. Furthermore, Sunday through Monday winds will be pretty calm (around 5 mph or below) and Monday afternoon winds will turn to the west southwest but, Tuesday morning a weak cold front will slice through the state. No accumulating snow is anticipated at this time with this system, but winds will turn back to the north around 10 mph which will also lower temperatures slightly. Finally, overcast skies will be prominent over southeastern Wisconsin Sunday and Tuesday, however Monday will feature some sun, but cloud over in the evening leading to an overcast overnight.
