Record-Breaking Cold Jars Upper Midwest
7AM CST, January 29, 2004
By WeatherBug Meteorologist, Justin Consor
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.
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 record-breaking 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.
I would love to take a nice, cool, refreshing jebwalk up there in Eveleth, MN where the winds blew that cool wind chill of 67 below zero. Man that would have been a splendidly bracing jebwalk!!!
Yeah I LOVE 67 below zero wind chills!
Bring it ON!! Spring can wait!!
-ICE MAN JEB