From the Arctic to the Tropics

The arctic blast has passed, now we're ready for the tropical heat.  Okay, not really, but it's going to be in upper 50s next week.  As the upper Midwest suffered through some of the coldest temperatures since 1996, we were somewhat spared.  Here in Rushville, the low only dropped to -9℉ the morning of January 30.  However, wind chills were in the -20℉ to -40℉ range.  I think the dangerous wind chill values was the big story.  It's not unusual to be -10℉ or colder in the upper Midwest, but when wind chill values are hitting -80℉, that's something.

This map shows the morning low ambient air temperatures for January 30, 2019.  You can see there's a small area of northern Minnesota in the <-40℉ category.  Look at this Tweet from the NWS Prediction Center. pic.twitter.com/VRZHuB3FUq

Closer to home, the morning lows on January 30 were much warmer.  See the map below.  Northern Indiana got in on the cold because they had a snowpack that we did not have in the central and southern part of the state.

The coldest temperature I could find from this cold snap was in Cotton, Minnesota.  There, the actual air temperature dropped to -56℉.  I have no idea what the wind chill was at that time, but with just a 10mph wind at -56℉ would create a wind chill of -85℉!  You can calculate wind chill using this NWS site:  https://www.weather.gov/epz/wxcalc_windchill

The link below talks about the low temperature in Cotton.

• https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/journal/cold-outbreak-january-27-31-2019.html