Midwest Cold Peaks, Slow Warmup Ensues

[CaptinCrunch]

Midwest Cold Peaks, Slow Warmup Ensues
7AM CST, January 30, 2004

Frigid weather in the upper Mississippi
Valley and Midwest reached a peak
early Friday morning while warming
began to spread into the Plains.

Grand Forks, ND set an all-time record
low Friday morning (records there go
back to 1941) with a temperature of 42
below zero. A WeatherBug live sensor
in Cloquet, MN bore the full brunt of the
cold as well early Friday, with a
temperature of 30 below zero and a
wind chill of 48 below.

Subzero readings were felt as far south
as Indianapolis and some suburbs of
St. Louis and Kansas City.
Wind chill advisories and warnings
remained in effect for a large part of the
middle and upper Mississippi Valley,
western Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.
Warming had begun across parts of the
high Plains as downsloping westerly
winds kicked in, however.

WeatherBug live sensors vividly
showed the battle between the milder
air and stubborn cold air in the Black
Hills of South Dakota - a sensor in
Deadwood, SD reported 35 degrees
while less than 10 miles to the east, a
sensor in Box Elder, SD struggled at 1
below zero.

As the arctic high pressure that
supported the frigid air outbreak drifts
east, slow warming will begin in the
Plains and upper Mississippi Valley
today and toward the Ohio Valley and
Great Lakes over the weekend. Places
such as Detroit and Milwaukee could
break freezing for the first time in over 2
weeks.