Chicago Weather Forecast: Deep Freeze, Then Possible Heavy Snow, Then Even Colder Temperatures
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago woke up to the coldest weather of the year on Friday, but it will pale in comparison to what's in store next week, when the Windy City could see record cold and suffer flashbacks to the days of the polar vortex five years ago.
Not to mention, we could see more heavy snow in between two rounds of extreme cold over the next week.
Temperatures at O'Hare International Airport plunged to 6 below zero overnight, with wind chills reaching 25 below zero before dawn. A wind chill advisory has been issued through noon Friday for all of northern and central Illinois and northern and central Indiana.
Temperatures are not expected to rise out of the single digits all day Friday. Those conditions can be dangerous, as frostbite can occur on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes when temperatures are below zero.
Meantime, light snow is expected to spread across most of northern Illinois and northwest Indiana during the afternoon, lasting several hours, but likely bringing less than an inch of accumulation.
The frigid conditions won't improve significantly until Monday, when temperatures should reach the mid 20s, but Monday also might bring a round of heavy snow. One model shows Chicago getting up to 8 inches of snow, but forecast models are still shifting a few days ahead of that storm. If the system shifts, it could miss the Chicago area altogether.
Monday night then will usher in a new cold snap, sending temperatures back down to the single digits by Tuesday morning, starting what could be a four-day stretch when temperatures will range from the single digits during the day down to nearly 20 below zero at times overnight.
Temperatures could break records during that cold snap, which will be even colder than the infamous polar vortex of 2014.
Wednesday could see a high around 2 degrees, and a low approaching 16 below zero, both of which would be records.
Thursday's expected high is zero, which would be the coldest high temperature ever recorded on Jan. 31 in Chicago. In 1971, the high reached 1 degree on Jan. 31.
Next Friday could be the fourth consecutive day of single digit temperatures, with a high around 9 degrees.
