It's Official. Illinois Has a New Record Cold Temperature of -38 Degrees

Remember the polar vortex back in late January? That was a fun one right? During that snap, there were - at the time - unofficial reports that the station in Mount Carroll, IL recorded a temperature of -38 degrees. If these were to be true that would beat out the previous record of -36 .

Well, the State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) unanimously voted to validate the -38 degrees reading observed on January 31st as the new official state record minimum temperature. This committee ensures that the observation is meteorologically possible, is within a range that the reporting instrument can detect, and that the instrument is in proper working order.

This beats out the previous record of -36 set in 1999 at Congerville. 

A complete review can be found here https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/scec/reports

Pictured above is the observation site at Mt Carroll. So congratulations to everyone who lived and survived the event. The word historic often gets used when it doesn't need to when describing weather events. In this case, its absolutely warranted. Now, I don't know about you, but I am ok with that record holding for awhile.

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