“Polar Vortex” Is Here

A Wind Chill Warning will be in effect from Sunday evening through Tuesday morning as the coldest air from what’s being called an “polar vortex” covers Minnesota.

After a very brief respite Friday night and Saturday morning, areas of northern Minnesota experienced another round of morning lows in the -30s on Sunday.  The cold spot was the tiny town of Togo in Itasca County where the mercury hit -41, while Embarrass and Babbit both reported lows of 40-below zero and wind chills from 50 to 55 below.  The unofficial morning low in Rochester was -8, and the mercury will likely not rise above zero until Wednesday.  The National Weather Service is predicting a low of 25 to 30 below zero Monday morning with wind chills in the 40 to 60 below range.

Governor Mark Dayton has already orders all public K-12 public schools to close on Monday because of the dangerously cold conditions.

Rochester Public Utilities is reminding customer of the need to take some precautions if they live in homes that have had previous problems with water pipes freezing. Spokesman Tony Benson it’s a good idea to leave water faucets running at a pencil thin stream to help prevent the loss of water service or even water damage because of frozen pipes.