Cold/Wind Chill — Linn, Iowa

2016-12-18 · Linn, Iowa

Event narrative

Law enforcement reported that a car driven by a 39 year old man slid 20 to 30 yards off the road in Cedar Rapids Sunday morning. He got out of his car and slipped on ice. Law enforcement found him lying outside of his car at 748 AM CST Sunday with severe hypotherma. It was unclear how long he had been there. He died shortly after arriving at the hospital. The air temperature when the main was found was -15F with a wind speed of 13 knots that resulted in a wind chill of -39. This was the 752 AM observation from Cedar Rapids Airport (KCID).

Wider weather episode

The coldest air of the winter season flooded into the region in the wake of an arctic cold front on the morning December 18th. Clouds cleared from west to east as high pressure moved into the region and winds diminished to 5 too 15 mph by sunrise. Low temperatures in eastern Iowa on Sunday morning ranged from -8F degrees at Keokuk to -17F degrees at Independence and -16F at Cedar Rapids. The lowest wind chills overnight ranged from -20 to -40 across eastern Iowa. These conditions resulted in the death of a man from exposure in Cedar Rapids.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 670664. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.