Southwestern counties under advisory as wind chills set to reach minus 20 overnight, remain cold Sunday
For the second weekend in a row, a winter storm descended on southeastern Wisconsin, this time dumping as much as 7.5 inches of snow on some parts of the Milwaukee metro area by midday Saturday.
The storm's last dregs brought scattered snow showers and gusty winds Saturday evening before wind chills were set to dip as low as minus 20 overnight and into Sunday.
A wind chill advisory was in effect until noon Sunday for southwest and south-central Wisconsin — from La Crosse in the west to Jefferson and Walworth counties in the east.
"The cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes," the National Weather Service advisory reads.
Subzero wind chills were expected for the Milwaukee area as well, but predictions sat just above the weather service threshold for issuing a wind chill advisory.
Temperatures will dip as low as 5 degrees, with a minus 15 wind chill, overnight, according to weather service predictions. Sunday morning would remain nearly as cold: 10 degrees by 10 a.m. with a minus 7 wind chill.
The strong winds Milwaukee experienced Saturday were expected to continue Sunday, with gusts up to 30 mph.
Temperatures hovered around freezing Saturday but quickly dropped in the evening once the storm moved out of the area and a front of arctic air arrived.
As with last week's icy mix, the overnight snowfall vexed drivers across the region.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office said it responded to 62 vehicle incidents between 5 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday. In a post on Twitter, it said there were 24 property damage crashes, one minor injury crash and 37 disabled vehicles, some from spin-outs.
A day after a Waukesha County Sheriff's deputy was injured when the deputy's squad was struck on I-94, deputies continued to respond to several calls of crashes on the interstate and highways. According to officials, there had been a number of incidents early Friday morning on I-94 and Highway 16. No major injuries have been reported.
In Racine County, a 27-year-old Union Grove man was struck by a hit-and-run driver while snow-blowing his driveway around midnight.
The victim suffered head and leg injuries that were not life-threatening. Paramedics took the man to a hospital and he was later released, the Racine County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.
The office said it is looking for a vehicle with front-end damage and a missing passenger-side mirror.
Also in Racine County, a jackknifed semi shut down four lanes of I-94 southbound just south of Highway K in Raymond for about an hour and 15 minutes early Saturday. The semi driver was ticketed for driving too fast for conditions.
In Milwaukee, the Department of Public Works deployed nearly 300 pieces of equipment to tackle the snow, said spokesman Brian DeNeve. Salt trucks began hitting the streets around 6 p.m. Friday. And at 4 a.m. Saturday, he said, it called in drivers of plow-equipped garbage trucks and operators of end loaders to begin clearing residential streets.
The City of Milwaukee issued a snow emergency for 10 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Sunday, with parking allowed on the even side of the street. The city said designated Milwaukee Public Schools and city-owned lots would be plowed and available for parking by 7 p.m. Saturday for off-street parking. More information was available at milwaukee.gov/snow.
Snowfall totals that have been reported to the National Weather service include 7.5 inches in Grafton, 6.4 in Waukesha, 5.5 in Germantown, 5.2 in St. Francis, 5 inches in Racine and Pleasant Prairie and 4.5 inches in Oak Creek.
The most snow fell in Ozaukee and Sheboygan counties, but snow totals across the rest of southeast Wisconsin were solidly in the forecast 4-to-6-inch range.
