A “Siberian Express” weather disturbance currently crossing the Arctic Ocean will meet up with the semi-permanent winter “polar vortex” over Canada, pushing a record-breaking cold air mass into the Upper Plains and Midwest U.S. by Wednesday.
Chicago All-Time Record Low?
Both the European (ECMWF) and U.S. (GFS) weather forecast models are in agreement that by Wednesday morning temperatures in the Chicago suburbs will be approaching -30 deg. F.
The all-time official record low for the Chicago metro area was -27 deg. F (O’Hare) on January 20, 1985, and that 34-year-old record could fall as the ECMWF model is forecasting -32 deg. F for Thursday morning while the GFS model is bottoming out at -26 deg. F on Wednesday morning.
Of course, these forecasts will change somewhat in the coming days as the cold wave approaches.
Dangerous Wind Chills
Like the record-breaking event of January 1985, the frigid temperatures will be accompanied by strong winds — gusting to 20 to 30 mph — with wind chills plunging to -60 deg. F at times.
This is dangerously cold, and I suspect schools will close, water lines will freeze, and travel will be discouraged. Again, this event is still several days away, but the public should be aware of the potential severity of this cold wave.
Not Just Chicago
The GFS forecast temperatures for Wednesday morning shows most of the upper Midwest will be well below zero, and temperatures might not get above -20 deg. F even at midday on Wednesday as far south as northern Indiana.
Again, the strong northwest winds will be pushing this air southeast, and Thursday morning will also bring record-breaking cold into the Ohio River Valley.
Read more at Dr. Roy’s Blog
There’s one good thing – Chicago police have noted that the number of shootings decreases in cold weather. They should be enjoying the lowest rate of shootings in many years…..
Weather and climate are seperate. Record cold is weather and record heat is climate. Now I understand.
At what temperature and wind speed do weather bunnies stop using “Feels like” ?
And of course the alarmists will say that their models prove this to be caused by global warming from increasing CO2–any and all weather events are caused by that!
This cold will of course be blamed on climate change and the alarmists will say it was predicted. If we are unfortunate enough to enter a mini ice age that too will be blamed on climate change and presented as a reason to make significant sacrifices in our life style and give liberals trillions to solve the problem. Remember, if it is bad, then climate change caused it.