Potentially lethal cold expected
JANESVILLE — The worst thing about the severe cold over the next two days is that it could kill or maim you.
A secondary worry is that streets might be treacherous because salt won't work in these temperatures.
With a forecast of 18 below zero tonight in Janesville and 21 below Thursday night, the city of Janesville decided it would be too cold even for ice skating. The city has closed the outdoor rink at Traxler Park until Friday at the earliest.
If you think that's funny, consider that severe cold was blamed for a death in northern Wisconsin early Tuesday, when a 51-year-old sleepwalker died from exposure after wandering from his rural Hayward home.
Frostbite is also a concern, of course.
The National Weather Service said the daytime high in Janesville on Thursday could be minus 5 with wind chills between minus 30 and minus 40.
Flesh can freeze in 10 minutes when the wind chill is 40 below or colder, the weather service noted.
Superintendent Tom Evert would not say at what point he would order Janesville schools closed, but he called the 10-minute frostbite mark "very significant."
Even before the current cold snap, doctors at Mercy Hospital in Janesville had treated two cases of frostbite.
Evert said he would monitor conditions over the next two days, but he won't decide about closing schools until early morning. Forecasts are useful, but it pays to wait to see what conditions actually are in the morning, he said.
"The important factor is the length of time students would be outside on their way to and from school," Evert said.
Instead of salt, Janesville city workers will be spreading sand on major streets and some of the hills today, paying special attention to intersections, said John Whitcomb, operations manager for the city public works department.
Whitcomb said salt won't melt snow at these temperatures and actually could make things worse. Salt could turn snow to slushy lumps, which would then freeze, making streets even more dangerous, Whitcomb said.
And with the expected winds, blowing snow could cause more problems, turning to ice as it blows over a salted street, Whitcomb said.
And don't expect Janesville's residential streets to be plowed today, even though there's a small amount of snow on them.
The city had planned a complete plow of all streets when the forecast yesterday called for 2 to 4 inches overnight. But the city backed off when the forecast changed to only about an inch.
Whitcomb said only major streets will be plowed today.
"People are just going to have to adjust their driving for the next few days here, until we can get through this," Whitcomb said.
Wind chills are expected to drop to 40 or 50 below zero in the far north before a warm-up starts this weekend.
The man who died Tuesday was found about 190 yards from his house, Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle of the Sawyer County Sheriff's Department said.
The man's son, who reported him missing late Tuesday morning, said the man was prone to sleepwalking.
Deputies followed tracks of his bare feet in the snow to find him.
"He had been in bed and walked outside. He had on very few clothes," said Zeigle, who declined to release the man's name until relatives had been notified.
The temperature in Hayward plunged to 16 below zero Tuesday morning, the weather service said.
Dave Anderson, 66, who lives outside the city, said his thermometer dipped to minus 22.
"It's winter. What the heck? There's not much you can do about it," he said.
To the south, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation announced it is making grants totaling $180,000 to 13 homeless shelters, just as their resources have been stretched to the breaking point by the economy and a severe winter.
Cindy Krahenbuhl, executive director of Guest House of Milwaukee, said the timing was perfect because the money will help meet people's needs for shelter, clothing and food during the bitter stretch of weather.
The falling temperatures have kept towing and auto-repair businesses across the state busy, as well as public works crews dealing with frozen pipes and water mains.
"We're working basically 24 hours a day with broken mains," said Dave Goldapp with Milwaukee Public Works, adding that more breaks could be expected as temperatures get colder.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report
Jan 17, 2009 at 11:44 p.m.
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In the words of Carlos Mencia: " I eat meat. Animals exhale Carbon dioxide. Vegetatarians eat plants. Plants rid our planet of carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. I am part of the solution."
Jan 15, 2009 at 10:46 a.m.
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garyprimer: God must have a sense of humor he created george w. now thats a sense of humor
Jan 15, 2009 at 10:02 a.m.
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And for God's sake and your own, get a sense of humor.
Jan 15, 2009 at 10 a.m.
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Some of you left wing liberal pinkies should read your home town paper more often. ;-)
http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/1...
Jan 15, 2009 at 8:34 a.m.
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Ok no one attack me, but haven't we been going through extreme weather changes since the beginning of time. We have the ice age. We have what is called the "Dalton Minimum" which lasted about 40 years in the early 1800's where was low solar activity so there was global cooling. Then in the 70's they started saying we were in a global cooling which now they say it was misunderstood that it was actually early stages of global warming. But if you go through history there has always been stages of extreme cold weather and then much warmer periods. So why can't this just be that again?
Jan 15, 2009 at 8:12 a.m.
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thats right, by cutting the trees and paving over everything we reduce the ability for the carbon to be removed, so it keeps building up more and more..
Jan 15, 2009 at 2:28 a.m.
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Dang! It's -9 already.
Jan 15, 2009 at 12:39 a.m.
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So are you stating the Keeling Curve directly correlates with global warming? Could it not mean that the carbon dioxide has increased because we have destroyed the rain forests and overpopulated the planet?
Jan 14, 2009 at 11:30 p.m.
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global warming causes shifts in weather patterns, we could have more severe winters and hotter temps in other areas of the world, global warming is no myth, it's happening now, mostly from what people have done by burning fossil fuels and releasing to much carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere...
Jan 14, 2009 at 11:03 p.m.
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I have some Hawaiian Tropic Suntan lotion for all those global warmers sunbathing outside tomorrow!
Jan 14, 2009 at 10:46 p.m.
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Actually there ARE studies that show that the inner polar ice caps are thicker then they were previousely.
I have to agree that global warming could be a myth- grown from propaganda.
Makes for an interesting debate..
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.a...
Jan 14, 2009 at 10:15 p.m.
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billnewbie-
I can't believe how uptight people can be! You make one joke about global warming, and it was clearly a joke, and people start flipping out on ya. Man, I'm glad I don't get my undies in a bundle over something so insignificant.
janesvillean-why is it a poor time to make jokes? I think anytime, well almost anytime, is good for jokes. What's wrong with making someone smile? Maybe you should try it, smiling that is, it can do wonders!
Jan 14, 2009 at 4:39 p.m.
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If I could live long enough to give a good opinion on global warming you would have to refer to me as the rep of ages.
I can predict the weather and the economy can I get some national recogoniton as well?
The cold and economic hardship is here for awhile.
That must make me smarter than Al Gore.
I predict the cold and economic hardship will both be back again in the future.
Take note Mr. Gore.
Jan 14, 2009 at 4:18 p.m.
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Hey Whythink, if you have all that unprotected sex for as long as Chicken Little Gore has been preaching global warming during blizzards and you still don't come down with an STD, that may very well lead one to believe STD's are a myth. But after all that time if STD's are not a myth, you should reasonably expect to at least develop a rash while global warming advocates should be able to reasonable expect to sunbath at least one or two days each January.
Jan 14, 2009 at 4:14 p.m.
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billnewbie...I found your sarcasm laced post very funny. Don't let those bozo's get to you. It's a lot easier to laugh than frown (or whatever cliche is popular now days).
Jan 14, 2009 at 4:11 p.m.
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I'll tell you what Janesvillean, you e-mail me when you think it is a good time for jokes, or are we just talking about global warming jokes for which there is never a good time for a joke in the opinion of some.
Jan 14, 2009 at 4:08 p.m.
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I thought billnewbie's joke was quite clever. Apparently not everyone got it. Good one newbie! It's nice to know there are people who aren't trolling the forums looking for something to poke fun at or ridicule posters about. Good for you!
Jan 14, 2009 at 1:26 p.m.
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billnewbie
Yep, because it is cold, very cold in Janesville Wisconsin global warming is now a myth.
Hey billnewbie, if I have unprotected sex with multiple partners and share needles with others and don't end up with HIV are you going to tell me that is a myth too?
How about smoking 2 packs a day for 40+ years and dying in a car accident at the age of 60? Does that make smoking safe?
I drop out of high school and use every type of drug I can but end up a millionaire. Will you advise your child that "a high school education is unncessary?
Your logic is pathetic. Janesville, WI does not = THE GLOBE
Jan 14, 2009 at 11:34 a.m.
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WOW, you mean they won't plow my street today? What a shock! I was all set to go out and smile at my frequent snowplow driver!! Why is this different than any other snowfall day??? we hardly ever get our street plowed any other time. I almost didn't know we had snowplows in this city except I would see other streets plowed and thought it was done magically!!!
Jan 14, 2009 at 11:15 a.m.
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I believe we are having this type weather like this due to the lack of sunspots the sun goes though an 11year cycle with sunspots. check it out sometime
Jan 14, 2009 at 10:33 a.m.
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billnewbie, what a poor time to make jokes. Nobody ever said that global warming means no more winter, so claiming that they did just makes you look foolish.
Jan 14, 2009 at 10:26 a.m.
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I don't know about anyone else but my faith in global warming has been shaken to its core. I had hoped that in just a few years we would have seen the last of snow and I most certainly thought that at least by now we had seen the last of these -20 degree temperatures. I am so disillusioned! What an inconvenient truth. It's like a cold slap in the face, or a slap in the cold face, more appropriately.
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