The frigid weather won’t be going away this weekend. If anything, it’s going to get worse before it gets better, according to regional meteorologists.
The National Weather Service has issued an extreme cold weather alert for the region, from Friday night into Saturday morning.
The wind chill could cause temperatures to feel like they are in the double-digit negatives as Friday night becomes Saturday morning for Pittsburgh (-15), Latrobe (-18) and Kittanning (-19). The wind chill across the region is forecast to remain in the negatives until early Sunday morning.
“This is a clipper (weather) system,” said NWS meteorologist Colton Milcarek. “Part of the nature of a clipper is it comes down out of northern Canada, where the air is very cold. So we’ll get the snow first, and the cold air second.”
Snow is expected to be steady from late Friday morning until early afternoon north of Pittsburgh; and steady from early afternoon into early evening south of the city.
“We’ll probably get 1 to 2 inches on Friday afternoon,” Milcarek said. “Overnight, most likely from 8-11 p.m. is when we’ll get this Arctic cold front coming down, which could bring some extra snow squalls and drop temperatures pretty fast.”
Milcarek said regional temperatures will drop down into the single digits over the span of just a few hours, bringing with it strong winds that could get the wind chill factor down to minus-20 degrees.
“The coldest of the wind chill will probably bottom out around 7 a.m.,” Milcarek said. “But those winds are expected to stay around most of the day.”
The frigid temperature and wind gusts elevates the risk of frostbite.
“In minus-20-degree wind chills, frostbite can occur on exposed skin within 30 minutes,” Milcarek said. “That’s why we have our extreme cold weather warning just north of the (Pittsburgh) region.”
Weather officials advised the public to use caution when traveling and bring appropriate clothing including a hat and gloves.
“We’ve had a lot of cold days already this year, but this kind of cold can be dangerous, especially for vulnerable populations,” Milcarek said.
High temperatures are expected to finally move above freezing early next week, forecasters said.