When can southwestern Illinois residents expect a break from record low wind chills?

When will metro-east residents receive some much-needed relief from the bitter winter weather?

Brad Charboneau, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service of St. Louis, provided insight into that, noting the wind gusts will stay pretty consistent all the way through the day Friday before winding down overnight Friday and into Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon will remain breezy with 15-20 mph gusts. Then, there will be a gradual winding downs of the winds through Saturday and into Saturday night.

“But the really strong gusts will be done by midnight Friday,” he said.

As far as the bone-chilling cold, no relief is expected Friday, with wind chills still 25- to 30-degrees below zero. However, Saturday will see gradual improvement with wind chills at 0 degrees or in the low single digits, he projected.

Charboneau expects temperatures to break a bit and reach the upper teens to mid-20s on Christmas Day.

Matt Beitscher, also a meteorologist with the weather service, confirmed Thursday afternoon that forecast/timetable still remains the same.

Beitscher also provided insight into previous record low wind chills for December in the region dating back 80 years, including:

• Dec. 21-24, 1989: There was a minimum wind chill of -38.
• Dec. 21-26, 1983: The coldest windchill was -41. Beitscher noted that was one of the top-10 coldest wind chills ever recorded at Lambert Airport ever, regardless of the month.

As far as the last time the metro-east saw wind chills this cold, regardless of month, it was from Jan. 5-7, 2014, with a wind chill of -33.

“This is a pretty impressive system we’re seeing,” Beitscher said.

As of 4:30 p.m. Thursday, snow was still falling and Beitscher expected the metro-east to receive another brief round of the white stuff between 5 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. before it concludes.

“That’s the last gasp of impactful snow,” he said.

As far as totals, Beitscher received notification Scott Air Force Base had measured 2 inches. Otherwise, he noted, “It’s difficult to get accurate measurements of the snow amounts. It’s very difficult to measure when winds are blowing 30 to 35 mph hour.”

All told, Beitscher expects initial projections of 2-4 inches to hold true.

The National Weather Service recommends keeping plugged into the forecast as it develops, www.weather.gov.

This story was originally published December 22, 2022 at 5:02 PM.