Extreme Cold Warning in effect Thursday morning; still cold again early Friday

The entire state of Nebraska wakes up today under an Extreme Cold Warning for dangerous wind chills -30 to -40 early Thursday morning.

Some significant wind chills have dropped between -40 to -45 in central Nebraska already.

For eastern Nebraska, the warning will go until 9 a.m. Thursday, while central and western Nebraska will be under the warning until noon Thursday.

Frostbite can happen in as little as 10 minutes in these conditions when the wind chill is pushing 30-40 below zero. Remember to check in on loved ones, protect your pets and pipes!

The difference in symptoms between frostbite and hypothermia:

The wind chill will actually improve to be above zero later this afternoon as we experience very light winds.

Record low temperatures for this morning were shattered compared to the old record lows from 1918 in Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings, Omaha, and Lincoln. Just to name a few.

In fact, almost everyone set a new record low this morning (except those circled below).

One more bitterly cold night in the forecast tonight, but it will not be as cold as Thursday morning. A Cold Weather Advisory will be in effect Thursday night until 9 a.m. Friday for areas around I-80 and north for wind chills around -20 to -30.

Wind chills will be around -15 to -25 across southeast Nebraska by Friday morning for one final cold start before we start to warm this weekend.

Even though temperatures will rise to the lower 20s on Friday, southern winds will make it feel around 10 degrees colder even during the day.

So the true start to what’ll feel warmer will be this weekend’s temperatures. We’ll be back above freezing on Saturday, 40s on Sunday and even warmer for the final week of February!

Meteorologist Jessica Blum 
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