Good afternoon/evening everyone! I hope your extended weekend went well. We have new weather information as of this afternoon; as a result, the FINAL Prediction for Tuesday, January 21, and the First Prediction for Wednesday, January 22, 2025 have been issued.

The Cold Weather Advisory has been upgraded to an Extreme Cold Warning, in effect from now until 12 PM Wednesday. The National Weather Service is anticipating wind chill values as low as -20*F within the county. Context is key here: the coldest wind chills will be in the morning hours just before sunrise, warming up during the daylight hours. Most of the county will have wind chills in the -10s in the early morning, but elevated locations, which naturally have colder and windier conditions, could reach down to -20*F.

Confidence admittedly is lower than usual for me here. Historically, this would be a textbook situation for widespread delays; typically we would see closings when wind chills would get down to -25*F or colder (using the old Wind Chill Warning criteria). However, a wildcard is how much temperatures warm by in the afternoon. If there is no worthwhile improvement by a couple of hours delay, some schools could close as a result. Ironically, Wednesday morning’s situation is almost exactly the same.

My gut tells me delays are the most likely, with some closings in the higher elevated areas. I have the same odds for Wednesday as well; how schools react today will help guide what Wednesday could look like.

Keep an eye out for alerts this evening; usually if a district is going to delay or close due to wind chills, they typically (not always) make the call the night before. Have a great evening everyone, stay warm, and thank you for the support!