| Episode Narrative |
The coldest air and lowest wind chills of the 2006-07 winter season affected south-central and southeast Wisconsin as a massive arctic high pressure pushed southeast through the Western Great Lakes Region over the 4-day period of February 3-6, 2007. Minimum air temperatures tumbled to -5F to -14F on February 3rd with the Lone Rock Airport (Sauk Co.) registering the -14F. Milwaukee Mithcell Field (Milwaukee Co.) had -9F and Madison's Truax Field fell to -11F on the 3rd. Daytime maximum air temperatures on the 3rd ranged from 3F to 10F above zero. Early morning low temperatures on the 4th ranged from -10F to -15F. Afternoon maximum temperatures on the 4th never reached the zero mark, ranging from -1F at Milwaukee to -3F at Madison. The lowest minimum temperatures of the 4-day period occurred on February 5th, ranging from -11F in Milwaukee to -26F at the Lone Rock Airport which sits in the flat Wisconsin River Valley where cold air drains into and collects. Maximum afternoon temperatures on the 5th ranged from -4F at Port Washington (Ozaukee Co.) to +6F at Richfield (Washington Co.). Early morning minimum temperatures on the 6th ranged from -7F in Milwaukee to -17F in Arygle (Lafayette Co.). Readings from the Lone Rock Airport were missing on February 6th. Afternoon maximum temperatures on the 6th were in the single digits. On February 3rd and 4th, west to northwest winds were generally 15 to 30 mph, which generated wind chill values of -20F to -30F. Lower wind speeds of 5 to 20 mph were noted on February 5th and 6th.|In general, the lowest wind chill values were observed during the early morning hours on February 5th, in the -30F to -34F range, corresponding to the lowest air temperatures of the winter season. However, Extreme Cold/Wind Chill conditions were experienced in six counties during the early morning hours of February 5th (Sheboygan, Sauk, Iowa, Waukesha, Racine, and Kenosha). In these counties the lowest wind chill temperatures were in the -35F to -38F range. Refer to the other Cold/Wind Chill and Extreme Cold/Wind Chill events for south-central and southeast Wisconsin during the period of February 1-6, 2007, for related stories.|The cold temperatures resulted in a broken water main and electrical outage in the 100 block of West Main St. near the Madison Capitol Square (Dane Co.) early Saturday morning, February 3rd. Many public and private schools were closed on Monday and Tuesday, February 5th and 6th. It was the first time in 13 years that the Madison schools close due to cold temperatures. Additionally, newspaper reports indicated that plumbers answered numerous frozen-pipe calls. |
