You can get frostbite in as few as 5 minutes in Chicago Wednesday

SHARE You can get frostbite in as few as 5 minutes in Chicago Wednesday
coldchicago_012519_7_1_e1548449513583.jpg

A woman covers her face with her gloved hands to stay warm, in The Loop, Friday afternoon, while temperatures were well below freezing, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, in Chicago. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

As Chicagoans brace for a historic streak of subzero temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday, the National Weather Service is warning residents about how quickly frostbite can occur.

Temperatures could plummet to minus-24 degrees early Wednesday morning, with wind gusts of up to 30 miles per hour, the National Weather Service says.

Those temps can cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as five minutes, the weather service warns. Even if temperatures increase to minus-15 later Wednesday, the forecasted high, winds of 15-20 miles per hour with gusts of 30 mph mean frostbite could strike in as few as 10 minutes.

Although it could get colder Wednesday night, with predicted lows of minus-26, lower wind speeds mean you’d still risk frostbite in about 10 minutes.

The National Weather Service’s windchill chart shows how quickly Chicagoans can get frostbite during this week’s cold snap. | National Weather Service

The National Weather Service’s windchill chart shows how quickly Chicagoans can get frostbite during this week’s cold snap. | National Weather Service

Chicagoans should stay indoors and check on their neighbors for the next two days, city officials said Tuesday.

The city will open 142 public buildings and facilities in the next two days as warming centers.

RELATED

6 ways to keep pets safe during dangerously cold weather

Here’s everything closing during Chicago’s dangerous cold snap

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”