Thursday’s temperature was the lowest since 1999 according to Dalias Price, local weather observer and former Eastern professor.

Matt Barnes, meteorologist for the National Weather Service, reported a temperature of minus 4 with the wind chill at minus 17.

The temperature a person actually feels in the cold is the wind chill, Barnes said.

“Wind chill is the effect of air on exposed human skin,” Price said. “The loss of energy and heat from the body intensifies with air movement.”

As wind speed increases, the danger of harsh cold air on skin intensifies.

The body temperature change has been figured mathematically to determine wind chill.

Thursday’s extreme cold came from a North Canadian front that entered this area early in the week, Barnes said. Little snow accompanied this front because there was very little moisture when it came through.

“With the front, came a big dome of high pressure, bringing very, very cold, dry air,” Price said.

It was the lowest mid-January temperature in the past three years. January of 1936 yielded the lowest recorded local temperatures of minus 17 with a wind chill of minus 35.

Friday’s temperature may reach the mid-teens, but won’t be a big change from yesterday. Price called these temperatures a “return to the old-fashioned winter.”

Barnes said there is a slight chance of snow Saturday afternoon, accompanying expected upper-20 degree daytime temperatures. Sunday temperatures should stay in the upper-20s.

The “old-fashioned winter” won’t be lasting long with next week’s temperatures expected to rise above freezing, possibly into the 40s.