WEATHER

Arctic air on the way for Wisconsin. Here's how cold it's going to get as more snow is possible next week

Joe Taschler
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Arctic air is set to invade Wisconsin early next week with low temperatures dropping below zero in some places as a powerful cold front sweeps across the state on Monday, forecasters say.  

Seasonal temperatures for the remainder of this week will give way to bitter cold by early next week, according to the National Weather Service.

"We'll be getting a lot of that arctic air from Canada down into our neck of the woods," said Cameron Miller, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Sullivan. 

Cold in southern Wisconsin 

The forecast calls for a low-pressure system to move southwest to northeast through the region on Monday. That system will drag an arctic cold front behind it, with the cold air arriving Monday afternoon and early evening, according to a statement from the weather service in Sullivan.

"Temperatures will rapidly fall into the 20s and eventually teens Monday night," in southern Wisconsin, the weather service said. 

Highs Tuesday and Wednesday are then forecast to be in the teens.

"As far as overnight temperatures (Tuesday night) are concerned, we're going to probably be in a range, at least in the Milwaukee area, of zero to 5 degrees above zero," Miller said.

"We're starting to get into that winter pattern and getting those blasts of cold air," Miller added. 

Colder in central Wisconsin 

Forecast models are sending low temperatures overnight Tuesday well below zero across central and north-central Wisconsin, Miller said.

Wind chills are expected to fall below zero next week across much of Wisconsin.

"In the middle of the state, closer to the center of the arctic air mass, we're starting to see overnight temperatures there starting to get down to -5, -10 and, in some places, the negative teens," Miller said.

The low overnight Tuesday in Wausau is forecast to be -8. Stevens Point is forecast to hit -5.   

Snow likely early next week

The cold air is expected to be preceded by a storm system that may bring accumulating snow to Wisconsin, but forecasts have yet to zero in on where and how much snow might fall.

All but far southern Wisconsin is covered by snow, after Thanksgiving week storms moved through the Upper Midwest. More snow is possible early next week.

For north-central and northeast Wisconsin, "widespread accumulating snow remains likely early next week," the weather service office in Green Bay said in a statement. "Anyone with travel plans from late Sunday night into Tuesday should monitor later forecasts for updates on this winter storm."

Forecast models are hinting toward less snow in southern Wisconsin — for now.

"Maybe a dusting to an inch with this system coming through Monday into Tuesday," Miller said. "It doesn't look like it will be a prolific snow producer," for southern Wisconsin, "at least at the moment." 

"It would be far northern Wisconsin again that would probably get the brunt of the snowfall," Miller added.

Contact Joe Taschler at (414) 224-2554 or jtaschler@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeTaschler or Facebook at facebook.com/joe.taschler.1.