Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Seneca, Ohio

2022-12-23 to 2022-12-24 · Seneca, Ohio

Event narrative

Wind chills plunged below 0 by 4 AM December 23rd and did not rise above 0 until late in the evening on December 25th. A wind chill of -27F was recorded at 7:00 AM December 23rd on a mesonet station near Tiffin. Other nearby airports, such as Findlay and Fremont, recorded wind chills colder than -30F. A number of burst pipes were reported across northern Ohio due to this cold, with temperatures remaining in the single digits until Christmas morning.

Wider weather episode

A long-duration, multi-faceted winter storm hit northern Ohio just before Christmas 2022 with extreme cold, strong winds, accumulating snow and extensive blowing and drifting of the snow that fell. An Arctic cold front swept east across northern Ohio during the late evening hours of December 22nd and early morning hours of December 23rd. Low pressure along this front tracked over Lake Erie early in the morning on December 23rd and rapidly intensified through the day while slowly lifting northeast across Ontario. With the frontal passage rain changed to snow with temperatures dropping from the upper 30s and lower 40s to sub-zero in about 8 hours. The snow was generally light to moderate, but a brief period of heavier snow with rates of around one inch per hour lifted from Central Ohio through Northeast Ohio during the early morning hours December 23rd. The period of snow and rapidly falling temperatures led to a flash freeze and icy conditions on area roadways. While the falling snow became lighter through the daytime hours of December 23rd, winds began increasing during the pre-dawn hours and gusted over 40 MPH area-wide through the day. Peak gusts in Northwest Ohio and in counties along the Lake Erie shoreline were between 50-60 MPH, with some marine stations gusting upwards of 70 MPH. Peak gusts across the rest of northern Ohio were generally 40-50 MPH. Wind gusts very gradually subsided into December 24th, though gusts didn't drop below 30mph until that evening. This led to a prolonged period of widespread blowing and drifting snow beginning early in the morning December 23rd and continuing through the afternoon and evening, with some patchy blowing and drifting snow continuing all the way through Christmas Eve. In parts of northern Ohio the blowing and drifting snow was extensive enough to lead to blizzard conditions on December 23rd. This storm caused a number of impacts across the area. The greatest impact was to travel due to the flash freeze and extensive blowing and drifting snow, to go along with low visibility. During the early afternoon hours on December 23rd a pile-up involving over 50 vehicles occurred on the Ohio Turnpike near the Sandusky and Erie County line, unfortunately leading to over 70 injuries and 4 fatalities. Numerous minor accidents, slide-offs and disabled vehicles were reported throughout the area on December 23rd and 24th. In total, several hundred traffic accidents, slide-offs, or disabled vehicles were reported across northern Ohio during this storm with approximately 200 accident-related injuries resulting. Many counties declared level three snow emergencies, prompting the closure of all county roads. Wind chills dipped to -25 to -40 across all of northern Ohio on December 23rd, unfortunately leading to 2 exposure-related fatalities, one in Stark County and another in Marion County. A number of burst pipes were reported across northern Ohio due to this cold, with temperatures remaining in the single digits until Christmas morning. Snowfall at climate sites across northern Ohio ranged from 1.0' at Toledo to 2.7' at Akron-Canton, 2.9' at Mansfield, 3.7' at Cleveland and 4.3' at Youngstown. Trained snow spotters reported amounts as high as 6.5' near Thompson and 6.0' near Shelby and Monroe Center.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1092609. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.