Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Columbia, Wisconsin

2025-01-20 to 2025-01-21 · Columbia, Wisconsin

Event narrative

Widespread wind chills in the -30 to -40 degree range were observed from 2 AM January 21 through the mid morning hours of January 21. Coldest wind chill of -38 was observed in Lodi.

Wider weather episode

Strong polar high pressure moved into the northern Great Plains late January 20 into January 21, allowing an arctic air mass to stream into the western Great Lakes. The overnight arrival of the air mass allowed low temperatures to fall to or below -10 degrees across the majority of southern Wisconsin by sunrise January 21. Breezy north winds combined with the frigid air temperatures to support widespread, extremely cold wind chills in the -30 to -40 degree range across most of southern Wisconsin. As a result of the extremely cold wind chills, virtually every southern Wisconsin school district canceled classes on January 21.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1224688. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.