Extreme Cold/Wind Chill in Fayette, Iowa

An automated weather observation station reported a wind chill of 38 degrees below zero in Oelwein.

A multi-faceted winter storm event through the middle of January ushered in an arctic airmass with bitter cold into Martin Luther King Junior Day. A 20 to 30 degree drop in minimum temperatures from January 13th through January 14th ushered in minimum temperatures of 10 to 20 degrees below zero across northeast Iowa. These bitterly cold temperatures lingered into the morning of Martin Luther King Junior Day on January 15th. While sustained winds largely remained calm, occasional gusts pushing 10 to 20 mph at times resulted in wind chill temperatures of 30 to 40 degrees below zero. Minimum wind chill reports were -39 degrees in Greene (Floyd County), -38 degrees in Oelwein (Fayette County),-37 degrees in Saratoga (Howard County), and -36 degrees near Dougherty (Floyd County).