According to the National Weather Service, the first half of our winter (Dec. 1 - Jan 15) has been much warmer than normal, with some areas of the state as much as six degrees above average temperatures.

However, let's not get ahead of ourselves. There's still another half to go, and the coldest airmass of the season is poised to enter the Upper Midwest late this weekend and early next week. While Friday and Saturday's temps will hopefully help to melt that stubborn half inch of icy snow that fell about a week ago, Sunday will give way to an Arctic chill.

This frigid airmass has been bottled up in Canada for much of this week, but it appears it will move into the area early next week bringing us the coldest temps of the winter so far. High temperatures Monday and Tuesday will only be in the single digits, and may stay below zero across the far north. And gusty northwest winds of 25-35 mph could create dangerously low wind chills. (Check out the pictured chart.)

The cold snap won't last terribly long, with Wednesday already seeing a recovery into the 20s, but the outlook for the remainder of January into February is calling for temperatures across Wisconsin to be colder than normal. Bundle up!

 Here are some additional winter cold weather links:

    - Wind Chill
    - Winter Weather Safety