More dangerously cold temps on tap

Chicago’s snowless streak is still on, but our nearly two-year run of no subzero days was expected to come to a chilly end Monday night with the mercury plunging to 4 degrees below zero, forecasters said.

A little sunshine Tuesday morning will help temperatures creep back to a high of 12 degrees, but high winds were forecast to push wind chills to as low as 25 below zero, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a wind chill advisory through Tuesday morning.

Tuesday night lows will stay above zero, in the 3- to 7-degree range, and it will be somewhat warmer Wednesday, with highs in the low 20s, according to the National Weather Service.

Before the most recent cold wave, the last subzero reading was minus 9 degrees on Feb. 10, 2011. As of Monday, Chicago has gone 332 days without a snowfall of at least an inch.

During the Martin Luther King holiday Monday, 10-degree tem- peratures led 95 people, mostly homeless, to show up at the city Department of Family and Support Services warming center at 10 S. Kedzie, according to DFSS spokesman Matt Smith.

It was the only DFSS warming center open due to the holiday, but other alternatives, such as police stations were available, Smith said. Six DFSS warming centers will be open Tuesday, and Smith said people can call 311 to find a warm place day or night.

Meanwhile, a 70-year-old suburban Des Plaines man found dead Sunday in his home was declared the seventh cold-related death of the season in Cook County, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

An autopsy Monday found Lawrence Sviontek died of hypothermia caused by cold exposure, with alcoholism as a contributing factor.

Contributing: Wire