Skokie School Districts Announce Wednesday Closures

SKOKIE, IL — With temperatures expected to reach dangerous levels by the middle of the week, local schools and other facilities have begun announcing closures for later in the week.

Skokie/Morton Grove School District 69 said it would be open for a regular school day Tuesday before cancelling classes and all activities Wednesday due to weather conditions anticipated to be life-threatening by the National Weather Service. Skokie School District 73.5 said all after-school activities were cancelled Tuesday and Wednesday, and school will be closed for Meyer, Middleton and McCracken students Wednesday. (Update: Schools will also be closed Thursday)

Other north suburban school district also announced school closures Wednesday and Thursday.

Check the Emergency Closing Center for the latest Chicagoland school and facility closures.

Temperatures are anticipated to fall to levels that could cause frostbite on exposed skin within as little as five minutes, according to the National Weather Service. By Tuesday night, it could be as cold as 20 to 30 degrees below zero, with potentially life-threatening wind chills of between 40 and 55 degrees below zero through Thursday morning.

Non-essential travel was discouraged, and anyone going outside was advised to wear several layers of clothing and cover all areas of exposed skin. Drivers have been urged to slow down, increase following distances and only pass snow plows when safe to do so.

Residents were asked to check in on neighbors and elderly residents and ensure fire hydrants are kept visible to help firefighters in case of emergency. Residents can report outages to ComEd at 1-800-334-7661

Electric space heaters should be used only with caution, and residents should be aware of signs of frostbite and hypothermia. With such a prolonged period of sub-zero temperatures, residents were also advised to take steps to prevent frozen pipes and keep indoor temperatures up.

Skokie offered the following home heating and plumbing tips for periods of extreme cold:

Raise the temperature in your home on Monday, January 28, to two to four degrees above your normal setting.

Take all programmable thermostats out of setback mode and set on a permanent hold of at least 70 degrees.

If you have a furnace, change the filter.

Keep garage doors closed.

Hang a blanket over drafty windows.

Limit opening exterior doors.

Make sure air vents and radiators are not blocked or obstructed.

If you have a 90%+ furnace and boiler, you must keep the intake and exhaust clear of ice and snow. During extreme cold, ice can build up. A 90%+ furnace and boiler has two white PVC pipes, an exhaust pipe and an intake pipe that are usually on the side or back of homes. In some instances, these pipes are on the roof, and residents are NOT advised to go on their roof to clear the pipe.

Open sink cabinet doors to help keep pipes from freezing.

Keep a small trickle of water running, both hot and cold, in all faucets to prevent freezing pipes.

If the temperature in your home is dropping and your radiators are hot with boiler systems or if you have hot air coming out of your vents with furnaces, do not panic. Please make sure that your heating system continues to operate.

If the temperatures drop in your home, it will not be able to recover until outdoor temperatures rise and the wind chill diminishes. Residential heating systems struggle to overcome temperatures of minus 20 or 30 degrees, and wind chill up to minus 50 degrees.

To help minimize temperature loss, you can boil water, make soups or stews as all of these actions help introduce humidity and warmer temperatures into your home.

Do not use your oven or a grill to heat your home, and only use space heaters under supervision as approved.

There are no 24-hour warming centers in Skokie, but the following locations are available during regular business hours for those needing shelter:

Illinois Department of Human Services
8001 Lincoln Ave.
(847) 745-3200
Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Skokie Public Library
5215 Oakton Street
(847) 673-7774
Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Skokie Park District
Weber Leisure Center
9300 Weber Park Place
(847) 674-1500 ext. 3500
Monday-Friday, 5:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Saturday - Sunday, 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

The Niles Township government building at 5255 Main Street, which is designated as a warming center by the Cook County Department of Emergency Management, announced it is would be closed Wednesday "due to the predictable dangerously low temperatures."

The last time the Chicago area approached this level of cold was Jan. 18 to 20, 1994, according to the National Weather Service. The all-time record cold for Chicago is -27 degrees on Jan. 20, 1985.