-24.7 with windchill of -54 here in IL

[reible]

Keep in mind the coldest I have ever seen in IL is -27 and almost no wind. And it gets worse, they said maybe -32 for tomorrow morning. This is just not IL weather.

Boy am I glad I don't have to go out today. Also glad I don't have to go out tomorrow morning. But in the +40's this weekend???

Ed

[thunderbirdbat]

I saw -28 here this morning but the wind is not as bad as yesterday so only -49 for windchill. Hope this is the only arctic cold system to come through.

[reible]

Photo of temperature reading:

IMG_2449sc.jpg (118.94 KiB) Viewed 12724 times

Ed

[garys]

Just a bit cooler than that here.

thermometer2.jpg (119.6 KiB) Viewed 12716 times

[sehast]

I grew up on a farm in Illinois just south of the Quad Cities. The coldest I ever saw was -37 but it only lasted one night. The worst stretch of consecutive cold days was in 1968 when I was attending classes at the University of Illinois in Urbana. For 5 consecutive days in January the temp never got above -5 to 0 during the day and down to -20 to -25 at night. And no they did not cancel classes.
We have a lot of downsides living in California now but that kind of brutal weather is not one of them.

Steve

[agleason]

Just a bit cooler than that here.

thermometer2.jpg

I have never ever ever seen a thermometer that low!!!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Gene Howe]

I grew up a little west of Effingham IL. Admittedly, a bit south of Ed but, the coldest I can remember was -10. But, I believe it's gotten below that this year.
Courtesy of the USAF, I was privileged to visit the Fairbanks, AK area in '62...IIRC. we saw -52. Anti freeze froze solid in the can. Spit froze before it hit the tarmac. It was a court martial offence if you were caught running. JP 4 jet fuel turned to jelly in the planes' tanks.
Someone in Omaha (SAC headquarters) thought it was a grand idea to order an alert which involved engine starts. Out of 24 engines, one started, 3 caught fire, several were frozen and wouldn't rotate. My plane's pilot was smart enough to quit trying when he realized our engines were not turning.
That 90 day tour was memorable...to say the least.

[reible]

I personally have seen -44 and it is a very different world when it is that cold. When we lived in northern WI we had oil heat. I forget the jell temperature but I think it was -3?. Our oil tanks were outside so when they forecast anything near -30 we had to fill up a reserve tank inside. When the outside supply stopped we switched over, a manual operation. As was the fill up procedure for the reserve.

We also had a barrel stove in the basement that was fired up on cold night. Load it up before bed and hope it stayed more most of the night because going back down involved going through some unheated areas to add wood and that wasn't pleasant.

If I forgot and left my bedroom door closed it got so cold a glass of water would freeze, nice layer of ice on top, and that happened more then once.

My mom would get up and hang a blanket between the doorway to the rest of the house and the kitchen. The kitchen stove was gas with a wood burner to one side. She would get that going and the kitchen would warm up, grabbed what you need and headed there on cold mornings.

Anyway my brothers and I got to texting about our experiences and the cold. Both brothers were in the Air Force, one a radar operator and one a radar repairman. In 1958 one was stationed in Alaska and he recalled seeing -60 once, even arctic wear didn't keep you warm at those temperatures. Any of you AF guys ever at Campion Air Station back then?

The other brother was at a gap filler station on a place called Spotted Island Labrador. For those that might find it interesting here is a little write up about that place from one of the guys that replaced my brother back then:

http://www.c-and-e-museum.org/Pinetreel ... ersic.html

Bunch of AF jargon which goes over my head but that is how it is when you were a grunt in the Army.....

Ed

[Gene Howe]

Interesting read,Ed. Thanks.

I saw +127 in Florence, AZ and, -52 at Fairbanks. I'll take the heat any day.
I see that your part of IL will hit +40 today. Bet that's a relief. Hopefully, the bitter cold is over for this year.