In my 1994 review of weather events I made reference to the 1994 Historic Cold Wave. Since we are coming up on the 30th year anniversary. I decided that this event should have a thread of its own, so I decided to do a thread on this historic event.

This event mainly impacted the Upper Midwest and caused record breaking cold temperatures. I"m going to explain how this event unfolded.

First there was a strong trough in the mid-levels of the atmosphere. You had a winter storm impacting the Upper Midwest. The Winter Storm pulled down a Polar Vortex. A polar Vortex is basically a trough that pulls cold air from the Tundra and Subarctic regions down into the United States. Some of the stronger vortexes can even pull cold air down to the Southern part of the United States. In this case the very strong low pressure system pulled down cold air from the Tundra. Then a dip trough pulled even more cold air down leading to the Polar Vortex.

The Cold air kept coming in from the North. Some of the air was traced back all the way to the polar regions of Siberia, later Alaska, and the polar regions of Canada. Strong winds developed in the mid-levels of the atmosphere. With the Polar Vortex in place these winds pushed the cold air farther south into the Upper Midwest.

High Pressure to the south kept the trough in place. Active storm systems produced min troughs. This kept the cold air from departing.

The result was a very cold air mass that lasted for 10 days. Several places set records.

In Canada
Yellowknife set a record of -58°F
Toronto set a record of -31°F

In the United States

The State of Minnesota was the hardest hit for 10 straight days St. Paul Minnesota did not get above 0 degrees for a high. In fact, St. Paul observed a temperature of -30°F with wind chills of -46°F.

The state of Michigan was also hit hard as several days had negative temperatures. A few locations had record lows of -30°F or colder.

Chicago set a record with temperatures of -21°F

The Mountains of New York were also impacted as several cities observed lows of -24 to -30°F.

However, the cold air was not limited to the Upper Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States. As I stated Polar Vortex often pull cold air to the south.

In the Southern United States

Kentucky had several readings of -7°F while not a record it was cold for a state that usually has highs in the 40's and lows in the mid 20's in January.

Tennessee had several readings of around 0°F again not a record but like Kentucky Tennessee often has daytime winter temps in the 40's to low 50's depending on the elevation.

Overall, this was a historic blast of cold air. Lots of water pipes busted. However, what was tragic was 100 people lost their lives due to the extreme cold. Several people were found frozen to death inside of their homes. This even lead to electric companies doing evaluations on how to handle temperatures like this.

As a Meteorologist myself all the ingredients came together. A powerful storm system, an off the chart trough in the mid-levels and a very cold air mass and waves of energy. All of these ingredients came together to produce the 1994 Cold Wave.