Blowing snow, falling temperatures and sub-zero wind chills carry into Friday

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) – The accumulating snow is over, but light flurries will continue into Friday while we transition to a much colder air mass. Snowfall amounts for most locations in the Chippewa Valley ranged between 3-5″ but an area stretching from Taylor County southward to Eastern La Cross County had several reports between 5-8 inches of accumulation. Here is a list of many of the reports relayed to the National Weather Service:

Eau Claire: 4.1″ Rice Lake: 4.5″ Menomonie: 4.1″ Mauston: 6.3″ Hayward: 6.5″ Roberts: 4.5″ Melrose: 6.5″ Strum: 5.0″ Sparta: 7.3″

Luck: 4.0″ Hixton: 6.5″ Holmen: 5.0″ Luck: 4.0″ Rockland: 6.5″ Galesville: 5.0″ Tomah: 7.5″ Buffalo: 4.3″ Medford: 8.0″

Barre Mills: 6.0″ Neillsville: 7.0″ La Crosse: 5.8″ Mondovi: 3.7″ Viola: 6.0″ Phillips: 5.8″ Tony: 4.0″ Arcadia: 4.0″ Merrillan: 7.25″

Colfax: 3.9″ Nelson: 4.0″ Hatfield: 6.0″ Lublin: 7.25″ Chetek: 4.5″ Dorchester: 5.0″ Granton: 5.1″ Weyerhaeuser: 4.5″

From this point onward nothing more than some flurries are expected across the area. What is expected? Much colder weather.

We’ve seen a strong northwesterly wind sweep across the area behind our storm system and this is bringing arctic air to the region out of Canada. A piece of the polar vortex will be making a swing to our north across Southern Canada over the next several days, but the proximity of this to us will be enough for arctic air to inundate our region as well. Temperatures on Friday will range from about 5-10 degrees above zero, but the breezy conditions will make it feel like it is below zero throughout the entire day. Breezy conditions will continue into the weekend as an arctic high begins to approach from the northwest.

Saturday and Sunday are expected to be the coldest days this winter. Saturday will start off around 5 degrees below zero with wind chill values close to -20! It will be imperative to bundle up, especially for anyone at the Jig’s Up Ice Fishing Contest. High temperatures will then struggle to break above zero with the high pressure system building into the area. Luckily, wind should become lighter by the start of Sunday, but low temps may also be close to 20 below zero! it is unlikely that Sunday climbs above zero degrees either. A chance to see more sun during the day will be the only positive as a partly cloudy sky is made possible by the dry air. This piece of the polar vortex responsible for the cold will be in no hurry to leave during the work week, of course… There is a good chance we fluctuate between single digit highs and sub-zero lows for the better part of, if not the entire work week ahead.

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