The low temperature forecast for Friday in the region. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA)

IRON MOUNTAIN — An extreme cold watch will be in effect from Thursday night through Saturday afternoon for the Upper Peninsula, the National Weather Service said.

Dangerously cold wind chills as low as minus 32 degrees below zero Fahrenheit are possible, forecasters said.

At Iron Mountain, the predicted lows are minus 12 on Thursday night and minus 17 Friday night.

Friday’s predicted high is minus 7.

“The dangerously cold wind chills as low as 30 below zero could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes,” the weather service said. “Frostbite and hypothermia will occur if unprotected skin is exposed to these temperatures. An extended period of freezing temperatures could cause ruptured water pipes.”

Today’s predicted high at Iron Mountain is 18 degrees and temperatures aren’t expected to get into the teens again until Monday.

“Historically, the middle to the second half of January has the lowest temperatures of the winter,” AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said. “The upcoming cold is projected to bring temperature departures of 10 to 40 degrees below the historical average over the Midwest on Friday.”

According to NWS data, the low at Iron Mountain reached minus 20 on both Jan. 21 and Jan. 22, 2025. Highs reached slightly above zero on those dates and the average temperature was about 23 degrees below the norm.

As Arctic air amassing in northern Canada surges into the central United States later this week, the high temperature in Minneapolis on Friday may be in the double-digits below zero, Sosnowski said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson said a large sprawling vortex of low pressure is centered over Hudson Bay in northern Canada. “This is dominating the weather over all of North America,” Jackson told the Associated Press.

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Jim Anderson can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85226, or janderson@ironmountaindailynews.com.