Wisconsin hit by another day of subzero cold before slight warming Associated Press Frigid temperatures engulfed Wisconsin for a second straight day Friday. But conditions were greatly improved in the Sheboygan water system, where icing in water intake pipes had caused problems, reducing the city's water supply. The National Weather Service said the state could expect a let-up in the cold over the weekend, but only after temperatures Friday night dip to from 5 below to 20 below zero, with wind chill factors from 15 to 30 below. Temperatures early Friday dropped to 25 below at Hayward, 22 below at Superior, 20 below at Medford, 19 below at Marshfield, 18 below at Ashland, 17 below at Wausau, 14 below Fond du Lac, 11 below at Madison and 9 below at Milwaukee. The National Weather Service said wind chills dropped again to from 25 to 40 below. Still, the problem with the Sheboygan water system showed marked improvement. "We had a good night, with minimal icing," said Joe Trueblood, Sheboygan's water utility superintendent, Friday morning as the water flow was at about 95-100 percent of normal, compared with 20 to 30 percent Wednesday night. The Friday low readings were similar to those reached late Wednesday and early Thursday, when highs for the day remained below zero in the northwest and only reached the single digits in the south and east. But weather service forecaster Mark Gehring said the strong arctic high would drift to the east of the state Saturday and an upper atmospheric disturbance will bring a chance of light snow. Residents at Sheboygan were asked Thursday to restrict water usage for nonessential things such as washing clothes, and industries were also asked to curtail their use. The Kohler Co. in Kohler, which is supplied by the Sheboygan Water Utility, canceled its first and second shifts Thursday in its pottery, foundry and production areas to help cut back on water usage. But work resumed there Friday. Trueblood said the water usage emergency that was imposed Thursday at Sheboygan as a result of icing in two water intake pipes in Lake Michigan was lifted Friday. He said water that was flushed backward through the intake pipes and changes in the lake current had enabled water to flow more freely in the system. A water main break released an estimated 500,000 gallons of water Friday morning at Superior. Doug Dickenson, Superior, Water, Light and Power supervisor of gas and water operations, said crews were able to shut off the water after about two hours. He said it was suspected that the main cracked, possibly due to the extreme cold. Michael Touchtone, an 8-year-old second grader at Goodland Elementary School in Racine, rescued a duck that had a leg trapped in a hole Thursday afternoon on the frozen Rock River. His mother, Mary Touchtone, said she was proud of her son, but at the same time not happy to hear that he ventured out onto the ice to rescue the bird, which later was taken to the Racine Zoo. Some schools in scattered parts of the state were closed both Thursday and Friday because of the cold. Karen Morzenti, administrative secretary at Ashland Public School District said the cancellation there Thursday was the first in two years because of the cold. "This is probably the coldest in the last couple of years," she said. For Diane Fizell, who grew up in Cornucopia, 20 miles west of Washburn along Lake Superior, Thursday's cold is nothing new. "We've had some really nice winters," she said. "This is just back to normal as far as I'm concerned." In Superior, Mayor David Ross didn't mind the cold at all. The city hopes the recent snow will attract ski enthusiasts. "We expect to have a very good tourist season this winter," he said.