DENVER (KDVR) — A major temperature drop is on the way Wednesday night as an arctic cold front arrives in Colorado.

The Pinpoint Weather team has issued a Pinpoint Weather Alert Day for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday due to the extreme cold and snow.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind chill warning for the Denver metro area, Front Range and Eastern Plains for wind chills as low as 50 degrees below zero from Wednesday evening into Friday morning.

The wind chill warning is in effect from 8 p.m. Wednesday until 11 a.m. Friday.

The NWS said the combination of wind and cold temperatures will create dangerously low wind chill values Wednesday evening through Friday morning.

What is wind chill?

The NWS said the wind chill temperature is how cold people and animals feel when outside. Wind chill is based on the rate of heat loss from exposed skin caused by wind and cold.

“As the wind increases, it draws heat from the body, driving down skin temperature and eventually the internal body temperature. Therefore, the wind makes it feel much colder. If the temperature is 0 degrees and the wind is blowing at 15 mph, the wind chill is minus 19 degrees. At this wind chill temperature, exposed skin can freeze in 30 minutes,” the NWS said.

The Pinpoint Weather team will continue to update the forecast multiple times each day.