Arctic Air Will Spill Into The Valley With Dangerous Wind Chills

While the north valley remains in a blizzard warning until 8:00 PM tonight, the rest of the Red River Valley has been downgraded to a winter weather advisory until 8:00 PM. Strong winds will persist into this evening between 20-40 mph gusting to 50 mph at times, causing reduced visibility from blowing snow outside of cities and towns. A wind chill advisory is also in effect for the area, including the warning and advisory counties from today until noon, Thursday. Wind chills will drop towards 35 below tonight.

I do suspect that the windchill advisory may be upgraded to a wind chill warning for Wednesday night as air temperatures plunge between 20 and 30 below zero. A light breeze will cause wind chills to drop into the dangerous 40-55 below range. Frostbite can set in as little as 10 minutes at -35 and within 5 minutes at -50.

As we head into the upcoming weekend, we will have another chance for snow showers overnight Friday into Saturday. Temperatures will rise back above zero into the 20's for Saturday, possibly even low to mid 30's if we are lucky, but breezy conditions will return.

Taking a quick glimpse into next week, I see signs that we could be seasonably warm. Unfortunately, with cold air looming just to our north, it will be possible to see another cold snap occur behind a couple of clipper systems I expect to track through the area next week. The strength and placement of these clippers will then determine if that cold air will fall into our area again by the end of next week.