Winter Weather — Vanderburgh, Indiana

2022-12-22 · Vanderburgh, Indiana

Wider weather episode

A powerful cold front swept through the region, with wind chills dropping to 20 to 30 below zero. These were the coldest wind chills observed in over 25 years across the region. Evansville plummeted to -30, which was the coldest since December 22, 1989. This was also only the 8th time dating back to 1950 that Evansville has recorded a wind chill dropping down to -30 or colder. The most extreme wind chills were from the evening of the 22nd to the morning of the 23rd, but wind chills as late as the morning of December 24th were often below minus 10. Actual air temperatures only reached the single digits above zero on the 23rd, which followed morning lows around 5 below. Peak wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph were observed during this event as well. The peak wind gust at Evansville was 41 mph on the evening of the 22nd. Isolated power outages were reported, some of which were caused by the strong winds. The extreme cold was indirectly responsible for a number of structure fires caused by supplemental heating sources, such as space heaters. There were numerous reports of frozen water pipes that burst and flooded homes and other buildings. An apartment building in Evansville was flooded after a pipe burst. Parts of Princeton in Gibson County were under a boil water advisory due to a water main break. On top of the extreme cold, one to three inches of snow fell. The highest amounts were east of a line from Princeton to Evansville, where around 3 inches fell. Snowfall amounts from Evansville west and north were from 1 to 2 inches. This snow and the accompanying flash freeze heavily impacted travel across the region. Despite relatively light traffic, there were numerous traffic mishaps. A fatal wreck occurred on Interstate 69 on the northeastern outskirts of Evansville. A 64-year-old man was killed, and several others were injured in the two-vehicle accident. One of the vehicles crossed the median and struck another vehicle head-on. Another wreck on Interstate 69 at the Pike/Daviess County line injured one person and prompted the closure of both northbound lanes.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1064796. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.