Deep in the heart of winter’s cold

Kids were bundled up against below zero temperatures Monday morning as they headed to school at the Northside Elementary. School was two hours late due to icy roads.
By Reed Anfinson
Eleven of the first 14 days of January have seen lows fall below zero. Sunday saw the wind chill reach a minus 23 degrees and Monday morning it was a minus 24 degrees.
School was two hours late Monday morning due to icy conditions on area roads due to Saturday evening’s freezing drizzle. It coated roads, windshields, and the landscape in a thick crust ice that made driving and walking treacherous.
Frigid temperatures are to be expected during the middle of January.
We are now in what are the coldest days of the year on average. From Jan. 8 to Jan. 20, the highs average 19 and the lows zero. But temperatures are often much colder.
Three times during the 13-day stretch lows have fallen to a 35 below – the coldest temperature recorded in the community since daily records started in 1953. The dates of those record cold temperatures are Jan. 9, 1977, Jan. 15, 2009, and Jan. 16 in both 1977 and 2009. Four dates between Jan. 8 and Jan. 20 have seen lows between a minus 30 and a minus 33.
January 18 holds the record of the coldest high temperature on record at a minus 23 degrees.
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