Winter made a triumphant return over Minnesota with temperatures below zero and some frigid windchill readings. The coldest windchill felt in Minnesota over the last couple of days was -47 degrees at Thief River Falls, 7am on January 5th, 2004. The lowest windchill the Twin Cities has felt since this arctic outbreak began was -25F on January 5th. This is not even close to some of the windchills seen historically. What is the coldest windchill ever seen in the Twin Cities or Minnesota? The answer can be a little tricky because on November 2001 the formula on how to calculate the windchill was changed. Perhaps the coldest windchill the Twin Cities has ever seen was -67 with the new formula (-87 with the old formula) back on January 22nd 1936. The temperature was -34 with a wind speed of 20mph. All traffic in the Twin Cities was severely hampered and a number of fatalities were caused by the cold. Without a lengthy state-wide wind record, it is difficult to say when was the coldest statewide windchill. There are some candidate dates though besides January 22, 1936. On January 9th and 10th, 1982 temperatures of -30 and winds of around 40mph were reported in Northern Minnesota. This would translate to -71 by the new formula (-100F by the old formula.)

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URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/windchill040106.htm
Last modified: January 6, 2004