If you were around the morning of January 16 you experienced some very cold temperatures.
Here is a breakdown of some of the area’s low temperatures:
- Cedar Rapids, IA -29 (set all time record)
- Chicago, IL -17
- Dixon, IL -32
- Dubuque, IA -30 (set daily record)
- Galena, IL -30
- Moline, IL -27 (set daily record)
- Monroe, WI -27
- Peoria, IL -21 (set daily record)
- Platteville, WI -35
- Rochelle, IL -36 (*unofficially tied the all time record low in the state of Illinois)
- Rockford, IL -25
- Savanna, IL -31
- Waterloo, IA -34 (tied all time record)
Other Notes of Interest: Dubuque, IA also set a daily record the day before on January 15th of -25, previously set in 1888. Dubuque’s all time record is -32 set in 1888 on January 16.
Many of you have probably experienced an all time record cold before: One occurred in Chicago and Rockford on January 20th, 1985 when the stations recorded -27 and -26, respectively.
*The Illinois all time record which was tied was recorded by an AWOS (Automated Weather Observing System) station run soley by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) versus an ASOS (Automated Surface Observing Systems) run by the NWS (National Weather Service). Therefore, it cannot be considered an official recording by the NWS and will not be considered as tying the state record. The things you learn doing blog research. The all time state record for Illinois remains -36 set at Congerville on January 5th, 1999.
Nearby Elizabeth, IL and Mount Carroll, IL once were tied for the states all time low record of -35 (Feb. 4 1996 at Elizabeth and Jan. 22 1930 at Mt. Carroll) before losing it to the -36 Congerville record in 1999.
Wisconsin’s record low of -55 was set on Febuary 4, 1996, at Couderay and Iowa’s -47 was set on Febuary 3, 1996 at Elkader. Interesting to note that Minnesota’s all time low was also recorded during this same 1996 cold spell (-60). A low of -19 was recorded in Chicago during that cold snap, which was the last time Chicago failed to get above zero, our most recent comparable cold snap. So, as always, it could be worse.
