BURRR!!!!!!

Schools and more close today; minus-40 wind chills feared:

Near record cold

For the next 24 hours, however, much of Wisconsin will experience cold of almost historic levels.

The temperature hasn't dropped into the teens below zero, which is possible Thursday night, since January 1999 in Milwaukee, and the National Weather Service hinted at minus 30 in some parts of the Wisconsin River Valley.




Layers, and lots of them, will be essential for those who do venture out in the next day or two, either out of necessity or bravado.

John Malan, forecaster for WTMJ-TV (Channel 4), also has been putting the cold in some perspective.

At least in Milwaukee, temperatures won't match the cold snap of Jan. 30 to Feb. 6, 1996. The thermometer hit minus 26 on Feb. 3 of that year, tying the all-time record for the city.

Malan calls January 1982 the worst in his recollection. The low temperature was below zero on 13 days that month, and it was 20 below or colder on three of them.

This week has brought dangerous cold, "but we should be happy it's only a two, or three-day blast," he said.