Jan 18-25 Cold Wave

[cyclone77]

Only -4 for a high this afternoon.  Pretty hard around here to get a below zero high temp with zero snow on the ground, but we did it.  Pretty impressive.  

Lowest wind chill hit -38 early this morning.

[Danny8]

13 hours ago, Malacka11 said:

Tell me I'm not tweaking... I noticed on this mornings dawg walk that climbing planes from O'Hare sounded comparatively hifi. Even from definitely a few thousand feet up you could hear tarmac-style turbine whine, yk that more shrill sound, echoing loudly off of adjacent apartment buildings quite literally the way it sounds in a terminal.

I actually had a hard time finding them because the higher frequency sounds making it farther down are ofc coming when the plane is directly above you, which my monkey brain was not computing properly with how loud the sound was. Even with a clear sky, I just wasn't looking for hoes that far up and was therefore surprised when I realized.

Ig I'm just shocked that if it's as simple as cold air = denser = transmits delicate high frequency sound waves better, that it makes such a massive difference between say 20° and -9° compared to 20° and 80°. 

Just saw your post but I had been thinking the same thing all day! Planes definitely sounded different to me as well. I’m about 10 miles east of ORD

[sbnwx85]

14 hours ago, Malacka11 said:

Tell me I'm not tweaking... I noticed on this mornings dawg walk that climbing planes from O'Hare sounded comparatively hifi. Even from definitely a few thousand feet up you could hear tarmac-style turbine whine, yk that more shrill sound, echoing loudly off of adjacent apartment buildings quite literally the way it sounds in a terminal.

I actually had a hard time finding them because the higher frequency sounds making it farther down are ofc coming when the plane is directly above you, which my monkey brain was not computing properly with how loud the sound was. Even with a clear sky, I just wasn't looking for hoes that far up and was therefore surprised when I realized.

Ig I'm just shocked that if it's as simple as cold air = denser = transmits delicate high frequency sound waves better, that it makes such a massive difference between say 20° and -9° compared to 20° and 80°. 

Planes landing at South Bend go right over where I work. When I was leaving I thought we had one coming right at me. I looked up and it was normal altitude, but the cold air must make the sound travel more efficiently. I thought I was going crazy but glad I’m at least not alone.

Down to -6 now. HRRR has a low of -13 with snow pack and clear skies it is certainly possible. Record today is -17.

[frostfern]

GRR is sitting at -16.  Daily record is -20.  All time is -24.  There’s some -20s showing up in more rural areas nearby though.  It seems like higher dewpoints are holding temperatures higher some places.  

It’s hard to get extreme lows here in West Michigan as normally westerly flow off the lake doesn’t diminish until the coldest core of 850 temps has passed.  This is kind of a rare setup where the 850 cold pool is stalling directly overhead with light winds.

[michsnowfreak]

-10° here this morning. I think DTW low also -10 but unsure yet. Cold spot Ann Arbor hit -21°!

This is not my photo, but an incredible shot of a -10° sunrise over the Detroit River in Wyandotte.

[OrdIowPitMsp]

-15 at MSP

[cutlew]

-22 at home away from the MSP heat island. Makes the -23 we hit yesterday with all the wind seem even more impressive though.

Good swath of -30s from northern WI across northern MN, looks like a few places just squeaked under -40.


.

[beavis1729]

40 minutes ago, cutlew said:

-22 at home away from the MSP heat island. Makes the -23 we hit yesterday with all the wind seem even more impressive though.

Good swath of -30s from northern WI across northern MN, looks like a few places just squeaked under -40.


.

Yeah, temps tanked overnight up there where skies cleared with calm winds, much colder than forecast. Manitowish Waters WI hit -38, and Minocqua -34. Even as far south as Stevens Point, it was -25.

[beavis1729]

Just saw in the NE forum cold thread that the Brunson, MN coop hit -43.

[Brian D]

-30's with some -40's (upper -10's - low -20's along the shore). Big winner was Seagull Lake at -43. Out of 16 stns I checked across MN/WI, half made top 3-5 temps with Hibbing the only record breaker at -35 (-31 1961/87/08).

Update: 2 other stns hit -43

[Brian D]

Hefty avg departures yesterday, upper -20's to low -30's, across MN/WI. Very significant cold wave. From a wx stand point, love it. From a practical one, hate it. Too harsh.

[madwx]

On 1/23/2026 at 9:44 AM, Malacka11 said:

Tell me I'm not tweaking... I noticed on this mornings dawg walk that climbing planes from O'Hare sounded comparatively hifi. Even from definitely a few thousand feet up you could hear tarmac-style turbine whine, yk that more shrill sound, echoing loudly off of adjacent apartment buildings quite literally the way it sounds in a terminal.

I actually had a hard time finding them because the higher frequency sounds making it farther down are ofc coming when the plane is directly above you, which my monkey brain was not computing properly with how loud the sound was. Even with a clear sky, I just wasn't looking for hoes that far up and was therefore surprised when I realized.

Ig I'm just shocked that if it's as simple as cold air = denser = transmits delicate high frequency sound waves better, that it makes such a massive difference between say 20° and -9° compared to 20° and 80°. 

On cold calm nights 747 freighters departing ohare will climb overhead at 20,000+ feet and sound like rockets. On a normal summer night you can barely hear them 

[beavis1729]

9 hours ago, frostfern said:

GRR is sitting at -16.  Daily record is -20.  All time is -24.  There’s some -20s showing up in more rural areas nearby though.  It seems like higher dewpoints are holding temperatures higher some places.  

It’s hard to get extreme lows here in West Michigan as normally westerly flow off the lake doesn’t diminish until the coldest core of 850 temps has passed.  This is kind of a rare setup where the 850 cold pool is stalling directly overhead with light winds.

Looks like GRR bottomed out at -19, congrats and good call. Skies cleared just after sunset, then remained that way until clouding over again this morning…so things lined up about as well as can be expected re: radiational cooling during the overnight hours. 

[Chinook]

my thermometer has never been below zero until today. I got it in April

[fluoronium]

It has barely made it above 0F here the past couple days and there isn't a flake of snow on the ground. It's jarring how awful it feels outside compared to how it looks. Worst climo 

I woke up to a cold house this morning to find that my front door starting splitting in two! There is a huge crack on top where cold air is rushing in. This nonsense would be more tolerable if it looked like a winter wonderland outside. 

[RogueWaves]

1 hour ago, Chinook said:

my thermometer has never been below zero until today. I got it in April

Had my car 4 yrs and this morning's -23F was easily the coldest I've seen it. The last time I'd seen such cold, cars didn't have thermometers lol

[frostfern]

2 hours ago, beavis1729 said:

Looks like GRR bottomed out at -19, congrats and good call. Skies cleared just after sunset, then remained that way until clouding over again this morning…so things lined up about as well as can be expected re: radiational cooling during the overnight hours. 

I feel like it could have gotten colder without pesky moisture hanging around and clouds moving overhead in the morning.  There’s a surprising amount of terrain effects too as it’s not totally flat here.  Places just a couple hundred feet higher had much lower dewpoints and fell way down into the mid -20s.

[WestMichigan]

2 hours ago, frostfern said:

I feel like it could have gotten colder without pesky moisture hanging around and clouds moving overhead in the morning.  There’s a surprising amount of terrain effects too as it’s not totally flat here.  Places just a couple hundred feet higher had much lower dewpoints and fell way down into the mid -20s.

I'm a little closer to the lake and clouds held my temperature up to only -8 last night.

[roardog]

3 hours ago, RogueWaves said:

Had my car 4 yrs and this morning's -23F was easily the coldest I've seen it. The last time I'd seen such cold, cars didn't have thermometers lol

I had a -21 on my car this morning. I’ve had it since 2020 and that’s definitely the coldest I’ve seen on it.  

[frostfern]

2 hours ago, WestMichigan said:

I'm a little closer to the lake and clouds held my temperature up to only -8 last night.

Somewhere near Rockford unofficially got down to -25.  Big Rapids got down to -27.  Cadillac -31.

It seems the small amounts of fog and moisture that hung out in lower areas held temps a little higher.  Urban heat island might have affected things too.  More exhaust moisture maybe.

[OrdIowPitMsp]

High of -2 at MSP today. 

[madwx]

Didn’t pop above 0 at MSN today. Going on 48 hours with negative temps. Should make a run at at least 60 hours 

 

would have to reach 64 hours to hit a top 10 all time streak here.  Likely will fall just short of that

[Jackstraw]

Using Penny Wharville-Mcgill's famous word from Oh brother where Art Thou, snow makes this brutal cold Bona Fide 

[Chicago Storm]

Low temp of -10 at ORD this morning.

[OrdIowPitMsp]

MSP only dropped to -9 overnight. We should pop above zero today after ~65-70 hours below zero. 

[Brian D]

-10's to -30's across NE MN into N WI this morning. Seagull Lake up on the border hit -40. I-Falls, Hibbing, Ashland, Rhinelander, and Eau Claire hit top 5 temps. Back to a more seasonably cold for the up coming week. A duster on Monday, but other than that, zzzz wx. 

[OrdIowPitMsp]

Temp has risen to 0 at MSP. The airport was below zero for 67 hours.