SANDPOINT — Be sure to have your winter coat, gloves and hat handy for the next few days, because cold weather in North Idaho is here to stay until next week.  

The onset of low to subzero temperatures in Bonner County has impacted everyone’s lives, from local students to office workers. Authorities advise county residents to bundle up and take care of their properties, as the cold will likely stick around until the beginning of next week.

Among those impacted by the cold weather are Lake Pend Oreille School District students, who for the second day will be staying home from school. LPOSD Superintendent Shawn Woodward said the main reason for the decision is related to student safety. While administrators are confident district bus drivers are up to handling the winter driving conditions, they’re concerned about children waiting for the bus in the freezing cold. In addition, many kids walk from a half-mile to a mile to their bus stop, putting them in danger of surpassing the 15-minute limit to extreme cold exposure recommended by authorities.

“The general guideline is that when we start seeing wind chills of -18, -19, -20 and so forth, we’ll start to consider closing schools,” Woodward said.

It’s always a tough call to determine whether or not schools should be closed, and there are good arguments on both sides, he added. Sometimes during rough winters, certain rural areas are more strongly impacted than other regions, in which case, school policy is to excuse anyone who can’t make it to class.

In the case of district-wide closures, Woodward said there are snow days built into the calendar, so schools shouldn’t have a problem reaching the number of school days required by state law.

North Idaho and Washington have been spared much of the winter trouble gripping other areas in the country, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Koch. This is the second arctic front that didn’t circumvent the Panhandle — the first occurred in early December.

However, this cold snap is actually slightly colder.

Temperatures aren’t expected to climb higher than 16 degrees — a far cry from the average highs in the 30s around this time of year — before the weekend. By that point, Koch said some cloud cover will begin to form, and temperatures are expected to normalize around Tuesday.