Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Kearney, Nebraska

2025-02-17 to 2025-02-20 · Kearney, Nebraska

Event narrative

Some of the coldest wind chills of the event were recorded across the county, including -43 degrees by a Nebraska Mesonet station located five miles northeast of Axtell and -42 degrees by a mesonet station located near Heartwell.

Wider weather episode

The coldest air of the season dove south and encased south central Nebraska in a wintry icebox of extreme cold, wind and light snow. This entry focuses more on the extreme cold/wind chill than the snow. For more detailed impacts of snow, see the 'Winter Weather' event entry dated February 17-18.

Though already pretty cold and snowy across the area from three winter events in a week, this was 'next-level' cold in terms of temperatures and wind chill. The drop in temperatures started on the 17th and continued through the 20th. In some cases, record setting cold occurred. Grand Island and Hastings both set daily record low temperatures. Hastings dropped to -17 (19th) and -20 (20th) respectively, while Grand Island bottomed out at -21 (19th) and -23 (20th). Both cities also set record daily minimum high temperatures (i.e., 'record low-highs'). On the 18th, neither city reached zero degrees, as Hastings topped out at -2 and Grand Island -3. It was only a bit better on the 19th when Grand Island reached -1 and Hastings topped out at 1 degree above zero. The morning of February 20th was the coldest morning. In general, nearly all reporting stations in south central Nebraska were at least -20 or colder. The NWS Cooperative Observer near Oxford had the coldest low temperature of -33, while Greeley bottomed out at -31 and Ord -30.

However, midwesterners like to say 'it's not the cold, it's the wind', and that certainly was the case with this polar plunge. Extreme Cold Warnings were hoisted for the entire area as north winds of 15-20 mph gusted over 25 mph at times. The cold and wind combination resulted in plummeting wind chills. As early as the 18th, wind chills were solidly at 30 degrees below zero or colder at most locations. Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) automated weather sites near Shelton and Clay Center both recorded wind chills of 39 degrees below zero on the 18th.

It would only get worse the next night as air temperatures took the proverbial 'nosedive'. Prior to dawn on February 20, many locations reported chill factors colder than -40! The coldest wind chill of -55 occurred near Shelton at 5:36 AM LT. An automated NDOT weather site recorded a wind chill of -54 shortly after 7 AM near Elm Creek. A wind chill of -44 was recorded at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport near Grand Island. This was the 4th time in the last 5 years the wind chill at Grand Island had dropped to -40 or colder.

No location was spared the extreme cold. Nearly every school in south central Nebraska cancelled classes due to the cold weather on the 19th and 20th. Many local activities and events were also canceled or postponed.

With a fresh blanket of snow across most of south central Nebraska, conditions were just right for the extreme cold as a 1044 MB surface high pressure settled across the area.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1241206. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.