Say what you will about recent mild winters, but Emma Milliken is always ready for the cold. ¶ From mid-autumn until spring there isn't a day when her kids don't go to school wearing vests and hats. And Wednesday, thanks to clearance prices at a St. Louis Park Kohl's, she was snapping up the bulkiest winter coats she could find for her kids for next year. ¶

"We're a family of layers," said Milliken. "I go over the top in keeping us warm."

There's a reason for her anxiety. Milliken grew up in England and moved to Minnesota only three years ago from Australia. So this weekend could bring the second-coldest day of her life and her kids' lives. The predicted low of 13 below Saturday night in the Twin Cities would be the coldest temperature since the minus-17 reading of Feb. 5, the coldest of last winter.

Those who've been here a while, though, might be wondering if that's all there is. Saturday's predicted low would be a long way from the record for the date -- minus 34 -- achieved in 1970. That tied the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Twin Cities, first reached on Jan. 22, 1936.

Assistant Minnesota DNR climatologist Greg Spoden noted that the 1936 temperature wins on a tiebreaker, with a windchill of 87 below at the time, and 67 below under the revised formula. Windchills Friday night into Saturday are expected to dip to a merely menacing 33 below.

Two to 3 inches of snow is expected across southeast Minnesota into Wisconsin today, with some brushing the metro area; light snow and high winds across much of the state Friday could create blizzard conditions. The National Weather Service is also predicting lows of 27 below for the Hibbing area Friday and Saturday, and several inches of lake-effect snow for the Duluth area Friday and Saturday.

While the weather service issued hazardous weather warnings for much of Minnesota for the next few days, low temperatures are to be expected this time of year. Following six months of declining daily sunlight, Minnesota tends to have its coldest weather of the year late January through early February, Spoden said.

Indeed, temperatures are expected to remain well below normal for perhaps the rest of the month.

How memorable will this weekend's snap be?

"It depends on how long you've lived here," said weather service meteorologist Byron Paulson. "It'll have a bite to it."

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646