Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Carver, Minnesota

2019-01-29 to 2019-01-31 · Carver, Minnesota

Event narrative

Several local weather sources measured wind chill values lower than -35F from Tuesday afternoon, through Thursday morning. The coldest wind chill was -52F.

Unfortunately, a 46 year old woman died due to the extreme cold weather in Carver County. The individual was found outside of her vehicle in Laketown Township.

Wider weather episode

In the wake of a weekend storm system that brought measurable snowfall to all of central and southern Minnesota, and the adjacent areas of west central Wisconsin, a surge of Arctic air moved southward.

The core of the coldest air mass (that hadn't been felt across the Upper Midwest since the Winter of 1995-96) moved southward from Monday afternoon, January 28th, through Wednesday evening, January 30th. The center of the cold air mass moved across Minnesota the afternoon of Tuesday, January 29th where 850mb temperatures were around -38F. Although temperatures slowly modified above the surface past the afternoon of Tuesday, January 29th, the combination of very strong winds and temperatures in the teens and 20s below zero, wind chill values averaged between 45 and 62 degrees below zero from Tuesday afternoon, through Wednesday morning. Although wind speeds lowered on Wednesday, actual temperatures in the 20s and 30s below zero kept wind chill values below -35F through Thursday morning.

These temperatures during this Arctic outbreak averaged nearly 50 degrees below average for late January. The worst conditions were across west central, southwest, and south central Minnesota where wind chill values averaged near -60F. A wind chill of -62F was measured at both Benson and Glenwood airports, with -60F at New Ulm during the height of the storm.

The -28 degrees F air temperature in the Twin Cities on January 30, 2019 was the coldest ambient air temperature in the Twin Cities since -32 degrees F on February 2, 1996.

The -13 degrees F maximum temperature on January 30, 2019 was the coldest maximum temperature since -17 degrees F on February 2, 1996.

The Twin Cities saw twelve straight hours of -50 degrees F or colder wind chill temperatures from 7pm on January 30 to 6am January 31, with the coldest reading of -55 at 11pm January 30. This was the coldest wind chill reading in the Twin Cities since January 19, 1985.

Unfortunately, a 46 year old woman died due to the extreme cold in Carver County. The individual was found outside of her vehicle in Laketown Township.

The bitter cold brought some natural gas shortages just north of the metro and power outages to about 7,000 in the southern and western suburbs. There were also broken water mains, and emergency personnel were busy with frostbite reports. Schools were closed for four days for many in the Twin Cities and outstate. The University of Minnesota was closed on the 30th and postal mail service was stopped statewide. At one point, CenterPoint Energy had asked hospitals to use alternate fuel sources during this extreme cold outbreak. The Twin Cities Public TV Now was disseminating extreme cold weather information in four languages on a continuous cycle. This was a collaborative project involving the NWS, State EM and TPT. Garbage collection was suspended. Numerous food services, grocery and department stores closed. The Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport had numerous issues that were related to the extreme cold which included closing down specific areas of the airport due to heating problems. The airside operations had trouble with water and lav trucks freezing up. The Salvation Army helped 306 households (655 individuals) with more than $94,000 in mortgage/rent, utilities, and fuel cards, as well as over 5000 pounds of food. The Metro Transit in Minneapolis had one of the 'rails' break due to the extreme cold.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 800125. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.