Stark County residents have been dealing with subzero temperatures, but warm-up on the way, forecasters say.
CANTON Stark County residents have been dealing with subzero temperatures, but a warm-up is on the way with temperatures more conducive to spring by the end of next week.
"We certainly have the possibility of being above normal potentially as we start to break out of this cold (Sunday)," Zach Sefcovic, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland, said Saturday.
Sefcovic said the break from the colder weather pattern comes "maybe the first time in two weeks."
The temperature dipped to minus 2 degrees just before 7 a.m. Saturday, with a windchill reading of 18 degrees below zero, according to the weather service website. By noon Saturday, the Akron-Canton Airport was reporting a temperature of 8 degrees under partly cloudy skies with winds out of the northwest at 12 mph, gusting to 22 mph, and a resulting windchill of minus 7.
The National Weather Service issued a new windchill advisory at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, slating it to run from 12:01 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sunday as Arctic air continued to blast through the area.
And while the weather service forecast included an overnight low Saturday into Sunday dipping to minus 4 degrees, temperatures are expected to climb to 24 degrees Sunday. The temperature will drop only a couple of degrees overnight into Monday, then rise above freezing but with a 90 percent chance of snow during the day, according to the weather service. Monday's snow accumulation was listed at 1 to 2 inches.
The extended forecast shows the daytime highs climbing up to 50 degrees Thursday.
But neither minus 2 nor 50 degrees would set any records for this time of year.
While the normal temperature ranges between 19 and 33 degrees, the record low for Saturday's date — Jan. 6 — is minus 10 degrees in 2014, according to weather service records, kept in this area since 1887. The record high of 65 was set in 1946.
The records for Thursday's date — Jan. 11 — are minus 9 in 1982 and 63 degrees in 1890.
The warmer weather might be short-lived.
"Probably next weekend, it will be pretty cold again as the Arctic air settles back into the area," Sefcovic said. "I think we're going to start heading back toward normal or maybe below normal."
Weather service records list the third and fourth weeks of January as typically the coldest.
Although the temperature has climbed into the 70s that week — a record high for the month set at 73 happened Jan. 23, 1906 — the coldest days of the year also have come between Jan. 17 and Jan. 22, when temperatures have plummeted into the mid-20s below zero, weather service records show.
The all-time low of 25 degrees below zero was set Jan. 19, 1994. It was 24 degrees below Jan. 20 and 21 in 1985.
Reach Lori at 330-580-8309 or lori.steineck@cantonrep.com.
On Twitter: @lsteineckREP