Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Dakota, Minnesota

2014-01-05 to 2014-01-07 · Dakota, Minnesota

Event narrative

Several sources from local observations indicated that a prolonged period of wind chill values below -35F occurred in the county, with locally -50F or lower during the height of the cold conditions. A 32 year old woman was found frozen to death outside her home in Lakeville on January 7.

Wider weather episode

The coldest wind chills in many years moved across the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest the week of January 5th, 2014. Temperatures dropped into the 20s and 30s below zero range and with wind speeds around 10 to 20 mph, wind chill values plummeted to 40 to 56 degrees below zero. The worse wind chill values occurred Sunday night (January 5) and Monday morning (January 6) when the core of the coldest air moved across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Wind chill warnings were in effect across the entire region.

Due to the extreme low wind chill values, the Minnesota governor cancelled all public school classes statewide on Monday, January 6th. It was the first such closing in 17 years. Multiple shelters were opened during the extreme cold period. Due to the extreme cold weather several outdoor skating and sledding facilities were closed around the Twin Cities metro area. Some regional hospitals stated they were seeing record-breaking number of frostbite cases during this event. A 32 year old woman was found frozen to death outside her home in Lakeville on January 7.

The St. Cloud airport tied their lowest high temperature on January 6th with -15F.

The following are some of the lowest wind chill readings during the two day period.

Alexandria (Douglas County), -56.

Glenwood (Pope County), -56.

Rice (Benton County), -55.

Lakeville (Dakota County), -53.

Belgrade (Stearns County), -53.

Morris (Stevens County), -52.

Benson (Swift County), -51.

Long Prairie (Todd County), -51.

Harding (Morrison County), -51.

New Ulm (Brown County), -51.

St. Cloud (Sherburne County), -51.

Sauk Centre (Stearns County), -51.

Clara City (Chippewa County), -50.

Winthrop (Sibley County), -50.

Pennock (Kandiyohi County), -50.

Litchfield (Meeker County), -50.

Twin Lakes (Freeborn County), -50.

Ellendale (Steele County), -50.

Milaca (Mille Lacs County), -50.

Granite Falls (Yellow Medicine County), -49.

New Germany (Carver County), -49.

Several Airports (Hennepin County), -48.

Several Airports (Ramsey County), -48.

Fairmont (Martin County), -48.

Hutchinson (McLeod County), -48.

Blue Earth (Faribault County), -48.

St. James (Watonwan County), -48.

Mankato Airport (Blue Earth County), -48.

Shakopee (Scott County), -47.

Olivia (Renville County), -47.

Buffalo (Wright County), -47.

Lake Elmo (Washington County), -47.

Redwood Falls (Redwood County), -47.

Anoka (Anoka County), -47.

Marietta (Lac Qui Parle County), -47.

Waseca (Waseca County), -46.

Faribault (Rice County), -45.

Rush City (Chisago County), -45.

Mora (Kanabec County), -45.

Stanton (Goodhue County), -45.

Cambridge (Isanti County), -42.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 482265. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.