Some Mid-Michigan students get fifth day off amid record cold temperatures

(1/31/2019) - Some students Mid-Michigan are officially getting a full week off school thanks to heavy snow and record cold temperatures.

Some school districts in Bay and Midland decided to cancel classes for Friday around 1 p.m. Thursday. Some schools in Saginaw and Genesee counties closed later in the afternoon.

Many roads remain slippery from Monday's snow storm followed by bitterly cold temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday. Wind chills both days dipped to around -40 degrees.

Most Mid-Michigan locations registered their high temperatures for Wednesday just after midnight. Temperatures during the daylight hours and evening remained below zero -- the first time that happened in 25 years.

Wednesday was the record coldest high temperature in Flint for Jan. 30 at 2 degrees, beating the previous record of 8 degrees set in 1951. Saginaw tied its Jan. 30 record cold highest temperature of 8 degrees, also from 1951.

Flint could set more records for Thursday's date. The forecast high of 3 degrees would be the record coldest high temperature, beating 6 degrees in 1971, while the forecast low of -14 degrees easily beats the record low of -8 in 1963.

Saginaw is expected to tie the record coldest high temperature for Jan. 31 at 5 degrees and fall short of missing the record coldest temperature for this date. The forecast low is -10 degrees while the record is -15 degrees in 1994.

Flint and Saginaw should be slightly warmer on Friday but still very cold with high temperatures of 14 degrees. The low Friday morning is forecast at -8 degrees in Flint and -6 degrees in Saginaw.

Winds will slacken overnight, so wind chills won't be as much of a concern Friday morning as they have been the rest of this week.

Both Flint and Saginaw narrowly missed all-time January record cold temperatures. The coldest high temperatures ever recorded in January was -4 in both cities on Jan. 18, 1994.

The coldest low temperatures ever recorded in January were -25 degrees in Flint on Jan. 18, 1976, and -22 degrees in Saginaw on Jan. 19, 1994.