Extreme cold coming
A plane that was flipped over by strong winds Tuesday is upright with the help of floats Wednesday at Independence Point.
BILL BULEY/Press
SANDPOINT — Bundle up.
A cold wave bringing subzero temperatures is projected to reach the region Friday.
The National Weather Service, as of Wednesday afternoon, was predicting temperatures of minus 10 degrees Friday, minus 14 on Saturday, minus 9 on Sunday, and minus 6 on Monday.
The highs during those four days are projected to be single digits.
“It’s going to be cold, dry and windy,” Coeur d’Alene climatologist Cliff Harris said on Wednesday.
He expects about one to three inches of snow today, and then four days of subzero conditions, around -5 to -10.
Western Montana could see temperatures as low as the -30s, Friday through Sunday, according to the NWS.
“This is really quite a cold wave coming,” Harris said, who expects more snow next week when it may warm up to the 20s.
It hasn’t been this cold since temperatures dropped to about negative 3 three years ago.
“People are going to have to be careful,” Harris said. “This is nothing to fool around with.”
Strong winds snapped branches and knocked over trash cans Tuesday. They also flipped a plane at the Independence Point dock, nearly sinking it.
Crews used floats to get the plane back on the surface.
Officials are urging people to prepare for what could be life-threatening conditions.
Avista officials recommended having an emergency preparedness kit on hand at all times. In the case of unplanned outages, consider including items like flashlights with fresh batteries, a portable battery-operated radio, a cell phone with battery backup, water, and nonperishable food.
For those who have to travel, Harris said this cold snap is “pretty unusual for having El Nino.”
He noted there wasn’t a day with temperatures under 21 degrees in October, November, or December, so the cold snap, “is going to be a real shock to people.”
Kirstin Haley, R.N., trauma injury prevention and education coordinator at Kootenai Health, said the extreme cold “can be very dangerous.”
She said the colder it is, the harder and faster it hits.
People run the risk of hypothermia within 30 minutes of being outside if they're not bundled up accordingly, Haley said.
"Hypothermia can set in really quickly," she added.