By Illinois Radio Network

LINCOLN – Illinois is starting 2018 with record cold.

The first day of the year was also the coldest day in years for a handful of places in Illinois.

The National Weather Service says the extreme cold that started 2018 set at least two records for cold, in Peoria and Lincoln.

Pretty much the entire state is looking at single digit temperatures and below zero wind chills for a little while longer, according to Scott Baker, a meteorologist at the Weather Service office in Lincoln.

“We’re getting the southerly flow of cold air,” Baker said. “And we’re seeing several rounds of cold air. Once you get so cold, you just can’t get out of it.”

Baker said it’s not just cold air. It’s dangerously cold air.

“Frostbite and hypothermia and that stuff can set in very quickly,” Baker said. “It can take as little as 10 to 15 minutes outside in these dangerously cold wind chills that frostbite can set in.”

Baker says it will be cold for most of the state through the beginning of the weekend, but Sunday and early next week will see warmer temperatures.

Baker said that means temperatures in the teens and 20s for the northern parts of the state and up into the 30s in southern Illinois.