Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Dawes, Nebraska

2024-01-15 to 2024-01-16 · Dawes, Nebraska

Event narrative

A second wave of extreme cold occurred across Dawes County from 1/15 through 1/16, with minimum observed air temperatures ranging from -15 F to -20 F. The cold temperatures combined with gusty winds resulted in a prolonged period of extreme wind chills under -35 F. Minimum observed wind chill values reached -50 F at NDOT site NE022 (15 miles S of Chadron) at 2:18 AM MST on 1/16. A record daily low temperature of -22 F was observed at the Chadron Airport ASOS on 1/14. In addition, a high temperature of only -5 F was also the coldest high temperature on record for this date.

Wider weather episode

A weak cold front brought widespread light to moderate snowfall to portions of the western Nebraska Panhandle on the 11th, resulting in localized snowfall totals of 3 to 6 inches with the highest accumulations generally occurring near terrain features such as the Cheyenne and Pine Ridges. In the wake of the intense arctic cold front that followed, temperatures plunged to between -15 F and -30 F across much of western Nebraska, with localized areas of temperatures approaching -40 F. This combined with elevated wind speeds resulted in a prolonged period of wind chills of -35 F to -55 F across all of western Nebraska from the evening of 1/12 through the morning of 1/16. Daytime high temperatures ranged from -5 F to -15 F for many locations on 1/13, with Chadron and Alliance setting all time records for the coldest high temperature in the month of January.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1153123. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.