Jill Schramm/MDN A wild turkey braves the chill on Monday, trotting through a snow-covered southeast Minot neighborhood.

Most of the state was pinned down and frozen stiff for much of the weekend as an arctic blast descended on the region. A new record for the coldest high in Minot was set on Saturday with a temperature of -19.

The low in Minot Saturday evening was -26, which also registered a blistering wind chill of at least -60 that continued into Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Though the wind chill warning was lifted by the NWS on Monday, an advisory will remain in effect until about noon today.

Gene LaDoucer, AAA North Dakota’s director of Public Affairs, said he wasn’t able to provide numbers from the weekend cold snap, but such conditions generally lead to an increase of 200-300% in calls for assistance with dead batteries and flat tires due to the extreme cold.

Conditions for the rest of the week aren’t expected to reach the life-threatening levels the region experienced over the weekend according to Todd Hamilton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck. Hamilton said the wind chill levels should begin hovering around -20 or so for the rest of the week, which he said will be a welcome improvement compared to the weekend’s sub-40 below numbers.

“It will be a noticeable difference, but it still is going to be cold,” Hamilton said. “It’s not going to be warm through the work week, but certainly not the life-threatening chills we had over the weekend. There will be an improvement Tuesday through Wednesday.”

There is a respite on the horizon from the brutal cold and wind chill, according to Hamilton, who said the speed of gusting winds is expected to drop significantly as the week progresses, leading to weekend highs, which could hit the mid-20s to low 30s in Minot.

“Saturday and especially Sunday we’ll notice a big difference. Maybe even above normal in the southwestern part of the state,” Hamilton said. “Today (Monday) is not that nice with the really strong winds, but Tuesday through the rest of the week, we’ll notice a difference.”