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 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cooperative
weather observer at Mt. Carroll in northeastern Illinois
reported a temperature of -38 degrees on the morning of Jan. 31.
“The temperature in Mt. Carroll may be a new state record, if
officially confirmed,” said Brian Kerschner, spokesperson for
the Illinois State Climatologist’s Office at the Illinois State
Water Survey.
When it appears that a state record temperature may have been
broken, a state climate extremes committee reviews the
observations to assess its validity. This team typically
includes the State Climatologist’s Office, the Midwestern
Regional Climate Center, and federal climate experts, such as
from the National Weather Service and the National Center for
Environmental Information.
Most of Illinois has been in the deep freeze for the past two
days. With a recording of -31 degrees, Rockford broke their
all-time low temperature, which was previously -27 degrees on
Jan. 10, 1982, the National Weather Service Forecast Office in
Chicago reports.
During the mornings of Jan. 30 and 31, numerous locations in
northern Illinois reported temperatures in the -20s and some
locations going below -30 degrees.
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Minimum temperatures were below 0 degrees throughout
most of the state, except for the southern regions. Daily mean
temperatures were generally 15 to 20 degrees lower than the 30-year
average temperature.
Some other notable temperatures included -35 degrees
at Elizabeth, -32 at Galena, -30 at Rochelle, -33 at Aledo, -26 at
DeKalb, -22 at Joliet, -21 at Galesburg, -17 in Champaign, and -16
in Decatur.
In the southern counties, Cairo reached 12 degrees and Carbondale
and Rosiclare saw 4 degrees.
Numerous schools, businesses, and government offices were closed
throughout the state because of the dangerously cold wind chills.
[Lisa Sheppard] |
