Record-Breaking Cold Jars Upper Midwest

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Record-Breaking Cold Jars Upper Midwest
7AM CST, January 29, 2004

Cold that has been building for several
days across the northern Plains and
upper Midwest was reaching a
crescendo early Thursday.

A WeatherBug live sensor in Eveleth in
northern Minnesota bottomed out at 35
degrees below zero early Thursday
morning with biting 19 mph winds
yielding an unfathomable wind chill of
67 below.

Exposed skin can freeze in less than 5
minutes with wind chills that cold. See
the link "Wind Chill Chart".
Subzero readings extended all the way
southeast to northern Kansas, the Des
Moines areas, and some northern and
western suburbs of Chicago.
Grand Forks, ND set a record low
temperature of 37 degrees early on
Wednesday night.

The cold was slowly seeping southward
and eastward. A WeatherBug live
sensor in Wausau, WI reported 16
below zero early Thursday, 19 degrees
cooler than Wednesday morning`s
reading at the same time.

Residents of the eastern Great Lakes
Ohio Valley will notice an increasing
chill Thursday into Friday with recordbreaking
low temperatures possible in
some areas.

The frigid air mass is associated with
arctic high pressure that will also keep
much of the east and Plains dry through
the end of the week. The one major
exception will be lake effect snows on
the southern and eastern shores of the
Great Lakes.

Over a foot of lake effect snow was
reported in parts of western New York
with snow squalls expected to continue
unabated into Friday. Over 3 feet is
possible by then.

Lake effect snows were also occurring
further west off Lakes Michigan and
Superior but drier air working in from
the west was holding down the
organization and intensity of snow
bands.