Cold/Wind Chill — Lincoln, Louisiana

2024-01-15 to 2024-01-16 · Lincoln, Louisiana

Wider weather episode

A strong surge of Arctic air invaded North Louisiana during mid-January with bitterly cold temperatures and gusty northerly winds. In the wake of the this Arctic air building even deeper into the region on the evening of January 15th, overnight low temperatures were able to drop into the single digits and teens through the morning on January 16th. When combined with the persistent and strong northerly winds, these temperatures resulted in dangerously cold wind chills in the lower single digits to below zero across North Louisiana from early evening on January 15th through midday on January 16th.

Unfortunately, this period of extremely cold weather resulted in a fatality in the Fisher community in Sabine Parish on January 16th, where a 73 year old female succumbed to hypothermia after falling earlier in the day, and then placed in a bed inside her home to rest. When family members went to check on her a short time later, she was cold. The family's only source of heat during the extreme cold temperatures was a small electric heater, which was ineffective to keep the room warm from these very cold temperatures. After morning low temperatures in the mid teens were observed on the 16th, readings only climbed to near 30 degrees during the afternoon. Her death was confirmed by coroners and the Louisiana Dept. of Health as weather-related due to hypothermia.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1159001. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.