BLOOMINGTON - Old man winter has awakened from his annual slumber. And he's grouchy. In addition to being the shortest day of the year, Sunday was the second coldest day thus far for the calendar year. | Winter officially arrives | Photo gallery | Submit your photos | Reader-submitted photos

Sunday's 9 a.m. low of minus 4 came in second to Jan. 24, which dipped down to minus 8.

The low was accompanied by a wind chill value of minus 24, said Brad Churchill, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln.

Adding to the chill for many area residents were power outages in Central Illinois. AmerenIP workers continued efforts Sunday to restore power to customers. In McLean County, 350 of the utility's customers were out of power at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Corn Belt Energy said in a press release Sunday night that 500 members were without power in several counties, including McLean. The statement urged members to "take precautions and be prepared for possible disruptions in power."

"The aftermath of Friday's ice storm has made it very challenging to restore power," the statement said. "New outages have appeared throughout the day due to strong winds and ice-laden lines," Jeff Reeves, president and CEO of Corn Belt Energy, said in the statement. "Our employees have been working very hard in extreme conditions to restore power as quickly as possible."

In a later statement at 10 p.m.

Sunday, Corn Belt said crews were on site and completing work on the final few outages in Central Illinois, with the expectation that power would be restored in the next few hours. The statement said AmerenIP lost transmission to the Corn Belt substation in Kappa at about 9:10 p.m. Sunday and that Ameren's on-site crews expected the outage to be resolved soon.

Corn Belt was optimistic that power will be restored to affected members in the northern region, such as Bureau, LaSalle and Putnam counties, by 6 this morning.

Normal Fire Department Lt. Doug Barnett said fire officials were assisting other agencies Sunday with hazardous road conditions that resulted when five utility poles at the intersection of Route 66 and Hershey Road snapped and caused power outages from Shelbourne Avenue in Normal to the town of Towanda. Traffic in the area was blocked for a period of time, Barnett said.

Earlier Sunday, A Dodge Stratus from Missouri became enflamed when it was driven over downed power lines at about 5:45 p.m. near Gridley at 31382 North Road and 2380 East Road, said McLean County Sheriff's Department Deputy William Bornder. No injuries were reported.

Normal police received several calls from people concerned about elderly neighbors who were without power, but no exposure-related deaths were reported by Bloomington or Normal police, or the McLean County sheriff's police.

The Web site of Central Illinois Regional Airport listed at least one flight delay, an AirTran flight from Atlanta, Ga., which had been expected at the airport at 7:50 p.m. Sunday. All other flights were arriving and departing on time, the Web site said.

Although subzero temperatures were expected to persist through the night, with wind chills between minus 19 and minus 24, the National Weather Service predicted a bit of a warm-up for today.

The Web site of the National Weather Service predicted mostly sunny skies for today in the Twin Cities with a high near 12. The low was expected to be 11.

Snow is predicted to come Tuesday morning, followed by a mixture of snow and sleet Tuesday afternoon.