Cold/Wind Chill — Chippewa, Wisconsin

2009-01-15 to 2009-01-16 · Chippewa, Wisconsin

Event narrative

As temperatures fell well below zero, and wind speeds increased slightly, dangerous wind chill values were felt for several hours across the area.

Wider weather episode

The upper level pattern the second week of January had a very strong long-wave trough across the Great Lakes region that basically caused significant arctic air to invade the upper Midwest. A deep snow pack and several minor snowfall events prior to this arctic outbreak allowed for little modification of this air mass as it dived southward. Temperatures dropped below zero and stayed below zero for the majority of the outbreak. In addition to the low temperatures, brisk winds of 10 to 20 mph caused wind chill values to drop into the 35 to 45 below range. Some of the coldest wind chill values are as follows; New Richmond -35, Osceola at -42, Eau Claire at -39, and Rice Lake at -42.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 148886. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.