A potentially record-setting cold front is set to hit Ames and the rest of Iowa throughout the week.

With wind chills expected as low as -40 degrees and with the ability to reach -50 degrees, Tuesday and Wednesday could be the coldest days on record in Iowa since February of 1996 when the record for all time coldest temperature in Iowa history was tied.

“These are once-in-a-decade levels of cold, and in this case it could be one of the coldest — if not the coldest day — since 1996,” said Jim Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines.

While it won’t be contesting the all-time record low of -47 degrees without a wind chill, the incoming levels of cold will be “dangerously low,” Lee said.

“I can’t stress enough the importance of layering clothing, with wind chills between -30 and -40 it would take 15 minutes or less for an uncovered area of your body to develop frostbite,” Lee said.

There are still records that could be broken, however, as there are daily records kept by the state of Iowa, and this cold front could break the records for the all time low temperatures for Jan. 29 or Jan. 30 of a given year.

This is due to the abnormal origins of the cold front moving through most of the Midwest: Known as an “arctic blast,” this front started from the arctic circle as the name suggests. Typically air and winds circulate around the poles, causing a phenomenon called the polar vortex. This vortex can travel southward on occasion, but it is rare for it to travel as far south as it has or for a stray front to escape the it.

“This arctic front — that, along with already cold weather, is the main reason why we could experience exceptionally cold temperatures and winds,” Lee said.

Wednesday, which is expected to be the coldest day of the week, could reach temperatures without a wind chill of -20 degrees across Iowa, and that isn’t the only weather issues people can expect.

Northeast Iowa could receive upwards of 6 inches of snow early in the week, but in Ames that number is closer to an inch. After Monday, snowfall will be sparse with intermittent flurries.

In the instance that classes aren’t canceled in the face of dangerous temperatures, Lee suggested people “bundle up, seriously bundle up,” along with a few other recommendations:

1. Layer clothing as much as possible, covering every part of the body.

2. If you feel numbness, pain or extreme cold in your extremities, seek shelter and warm up.

3. If you can avoid walking, avoid it.

4. To reiterate: a sweater and jeans will not cut it, the more layers the better.